Traitorous Intent
by babesrus2
Summary: A traitor in RangeMan. Who is it and why are they attempting it. Babe HEA.
1. Chapter 1

_This is a story of friendship, love, deceit, and some violence. I fully credit Janet Evanovich for her characters and have added a few of my own. Obviously all mistakes are mine and I look forward to unrolling this scenario to you._

Traitorous Intent

Chapter 1

There's a traitor, a turn-coat, scum-sucking bastard of an enemy in my company.

Ranger sat at his desk and scrubbed his hands up and down the sides of his face, rubbing the stubble on his chin and right up past his ears and into his hairline. He had his door closed and now leaning back in his chair, he sighed.

He had gone to bat for the men under his employ, even shedding blood a number of times. He had taken a chance on fellow soldiers so damaged by their life experiences and this was what he was now up against?

He had the Trenton list in front of him with the names of all his employees, past and present. Right now everybody was suspect, everyone was the enemy.

He looked at the list again. Who could he trust? Who could he not?

His first thought was of course to stash his Babe in a safe place but he suspected she would fight him tooth and nail at the very mention of a safe house. And right now, like it or not, she was only one of a few that he could trust.

Ranger looked at the list again and picked up the green highlighter. Green was optimism; green was hoping against hope that he was right. With an almost smile, he stroked off Stephanie's name, then Ella and Luis. He crossed his fingers figuratively and stroked through the names of the Core Team.

He picked up his blue highlighter. Unfortunately a number of employees had died, either on duty or from illness. Their names drove a stake into his heart.

Manny who had pushed Ranger out of the way on a take-down gone wrong and took the bullet meant for him. Losing an employee that valuable was bad enough, but the fact that he had recently found the woman of his dreams, his soul mate, made it even tougher. They were supposed to marry in a few months and Manny used to walk around with a perpetual smile on his face every morning when he had come to work.

Big, strong Eric. Killed by a flesh-eating disease that had struck so quickly they hadn't been able to stop it in time. The medical personnel at St. Luke's had amputated his leg but they still couldn't save his life. Bobby been on holidays and he had blamed himself that he hadn't been around to catch it in time. While nobody had blamed Harold, his assistant, one of the ER doctors had spoken to Ranger about how fast it could turn from a routine medical condition to an emergency issue.

Taylor, a relatively new man who had been felled on a government mission gone wrong. His death continued to sadden Ranger. His helicopter and all his companions had been shot down by a surface to air missile. A couple of factions had gleefully taken the credit but the simple fact that six lives had been lost had hurt. Ranger and his men had known every one of those on that bird. The pilots flying the helicopter had transported them into and out of areas of combat so toxic that it was a miracle that any of them had survived at all on their missions.

The Wall of Honor in the main conference room had increased by three more heroes.

Onto yellow. Some men had left, believing that they needed or wanted to get on with their life and settle down. Most of them were happy with their new situations and some were either married, or expecting children. A few had tried to drift back but Ranger could see that they were desperate for a paycheque more than a desire to work and had gently refused to allow them to return. These men had sweated and bled real blood for him and his company. Each man had put their own lives in peril every time they had pulled on the RangeMan uniform. He had wished them well, with the full knowledge that desperate men sometimes did desperate things. Shortly after, one had committed suicide, and three had been recruited as mercenaries for hire out of the country. Another was facing a myriad of charges related to violence against his partner and was looking at a lengthy jail sentence

Ranger hoped that soon he would be able to change the color but he needed to do his due diligence and check them all out to his satisfaction.

He looked at the rest. Too many questions, too many things to check.

His black pen sat ominously alone. Black was the traitor.

He stood up with the papers in his hand. He strode over to the wall safe and punching in the newest combination, he inserted the files onto the floor of the safe and closed the door. He spun the dial and rehung the picture. Sitting at his desk was not what he needed right now. Hmm, gun range or the gym.

He headed to the locker room and swiftly changed into gym attire. It was quiet in the room as he warmed up then stepped on the treadmill, setting it for a newly installed Ranger training course.

The sweat rolled down his face drenching his shirt and droplets landed on the deck. The machine slowed down signalling the end of the training session and Ranger looked around. He had been concentrating so hard on the course that he had forgotten to be aware of his surroundings and realized that at any point he might have been targeted. That too was disconcerting. He was always aware of his surroundings. That had kept him alive in so, so many situations over his life.

~~~o0o~~~

It was little things that finally drew him to the possibility of something very wrong.

His car, which up until this time had NEVER been vandalized when he was driving it, was keyed on one call, then the windshield smashed on another. As his beloved Porsche was sustaining damage never seen before, Ranger put it down to stupid punks who had just moved in and didn't know of him (yet).

Tank had chuckled at this turn of affairs and had kidded Ranger that the infamous Bombshell vehicle karma had rubbed off on him. After a discussion on the mats Tank had admitted with a wince or two that while it was aggravating it would probably be the last of the pranks when the perps were identified.

Next had been a take-down gone wrong. While Ranger was cuffing an FTA, he had glimpsed the shine of what he believed was a rifle barrel scope and had dived taking his man with him to the ground. No shot had been fired, but he firmly believed that there was intent was enough to put him on alert. Checking later, he tracked to where he believed he had seen the glint and noticed that the grass had been disturbed, and recently.

He had been getting hang-ups on his phone. The calls were always blocked and no voice-mail had been left. He had a passing thought that now he knew how Stephanie had felt anytime she had a stalker and these kind of things seemed to happen to her. She had always waited too long, if she even bothered to let someone know at RangeMan. It had almost turned disastrous a number of times. The calls were coming at different hours of the day and night and lasted no longer than a few seconds, but enough that he was sure that there was an intent to disrupt his sleeping and working patterns.

Trucks stopped at Shorty's one evening had been subjected to a barrage of eggs as the men were inside. Checking the security cameras outside, nothing could been seen with definition, but there had been a blur here and there as whoever had thrown the eggs had been hiding behind a truck, then moved to behind another before once again throwing the projectiles.

The latest episode came yesterday. A number of the men were ferrying vehicles to the company compound out of town. Normally he led the convoy but today he had been forced to take a phone call he had been waiting for. He had nodded to Tank to take the lead vehicle and he would get someone to drive the recovery van and pick up the men at the compound. The five car convoy had just left the garage and came upon a light turning red. The vehicle Tank was driving had failed to slow down and even though his foot was pressed firmly on the brakes all the way to the floor, it had felt squishy and slow to respond. Pulling on the emergency brake was also useless. Rather than hit the pedestrians crossing in front of him, Tank swung the truck to the right and had centre punched the light standard. The air bags had deployed and he had emerged from the wreckage rubbing his chest to look at the damage. The entire convoy had stopped and they all waited for the authorities to arrive. It looked like the truck was a write-off but nobody had been hurt and that was the main thing. Word coming down later had confirmed that the brake line and the emergency line had been punctured.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie sat on her couch with a carton of ice cream in her hand and sighed.

She was tired. Her days were filled with catching her FTA's and trying to keep Vinnie happy. Well, she reasoned, Vinnie was never happy. He had taken happy out of the vocabulary. Everyone was tiptoeing around the office as long as he was in attendance. The air literally changed when the door closed behind his good for nothing behind at the end of another day.

None of the ladies had any idea why he was so charged up. The bonds were being brought back into the system if they faltered in returning to court on their appointed days.

At the same time, it wasn't enough to consistently live on and Ranger had asked her if she could help out around the office. He had mentioned that they were short of personnel on site and he really needed her for as much as she could give him. Numerous times he had asked if she would just quit and work full-time at RangeMan.

Maybe this time, if and when he asked, she might agree.

~~~o0o~~~

Les and Bobby came into the break room and grabbed a cup of coffee each and a yogurt. Bobby opened the lid on his and slid his spoon in and commenced eating but Les had also grabbed a box of cereal and was mixing it all into some kind of concoction in a cereal bowl. He spooned out a large dollop and jammed it into his mouth crunching with satisfaction.

They sat down and looked around. The room was almost completely full as it was break time and the chatter ranged from whispered conversations to checking cell phones, or a bark of laughter at one of the tables.

Bobby spoke. "While last night was a blast and I have no idea how you found those ladies for us, I have been thinking that it's time to start acting our age."

Les looked at him with his spoon sticking to his nose from friction. "What, can't keep up, buddy? Or is it, you are having trouble keeping 'it' up. I know you have some magic in your cupboards down in that room somewhere." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and grinned.

Bobby grimaced and then glared at his best friend. "Thank you very much. Everything is working just perfectly in THAT department. It's just that I'm starting to think that it's time to settle down a bit and maybe try for my own Someday."

Les took the spoon from his nose and placed it on the table. He started to frown slightly. "What, this means you want a divorce? Are you looking at moving out of our place, the building or Trenton?

Bobby shook his head. "No, certainly not out of town. I think it's time to move out of a building that holds only guys except for Ella and Stephanie. While I love working with these guys, I think that it's time to start separating my working life with my after working life."

Les turned to his friend, his snack forgotten.

"Did I do something that is pissing you off? We both clean up after ourselves and we don't steal each others dates."

Bobby shook his head. Les was not getting it.

He looked around at the men. Most of them had been employed at RangeMan for years. Only a few had steadies, wives or someone special to be with. Most of them were loners by choice, wanting companionship on a casual basis only.

Bobby shook his head again. "I've been rooming with you since basic and I just think it's time to get our own places. I don't have a problem per se, but, well, I'm starting to feel that it's time to make some changes and grow up."

He looked over at Les and could see the hurt in his eyes. They had roomed together forever and while the guys never judged, a number of them had probably believed that they were a couple. To hear Bobby admit that he was contemplating moving to his own place was gut wrenching. Had he done something to finally make that scenario go south, had he crossed the line on his never-ending pranks and rude jokes. Had a girl finally come between them? Bobby had never mentioned a steady in the past, but well, stranger things could happen.

"What I mean is … you know, this is not the place to discuss this."

Bobby stood up and motioned for Les to follow him. They had a few minutes left on their break and this conversation needed to be held in the security and the serenity of their two bedroom apartment downstairs.

Les followed Bobby down the stairs. He was mentally going through all the scenarios and the recent past activities that might have triggered this request.

They closed the apartment door behind them and sat down in the two gaming chairs in front of the tv. They had pushed the sofa against the back wall some time ago and it was only used when fellow RangeMen had come in to have a drink or to party.

Bobby turned to Les and spoke.

"Les. Let's face it. We're 35 years old. The old biological time clock is ticking, not as much for us as for any woman who we meet that will want to have any kids one day. Unless we want to rob the cradle, and I for one would like to have an adult conversation having been living through the same decades. I want a family, Les. I want a woman who I think about every day and sleep with every night."

Les looked at his best friend. While he truly believed that such a woman would never be in his future, stranger things had happened and he really couldn't be unhappy for his friend. Bobby was the healer of the group, the thinker, the voice of reason.

He spoke. "I never imagined that you were starting to feel this way, but I should have. Tank has Lula, and it looks serious this time. A number of guys here have taken the plunge and like it or not, we are all getting older. Ranger and Beautiful are a couple, and everybody but them can see it plain as the eyes in our heads."

He looked around at the apartment, seeing for possibly the first time how it was decorated. Of course there was the standard furniture but it was the lack of anything 'personal' in the room. On the coffee table was a stack of Guns and Ammo, and Soldier of Fortune, and a catalogue from Remington with the new fall line. There were no photos, no small mementos made by loved ones.

He chewed on the bottom of his lip before he spoke. Bobby smiled internally. He had done that for years when he was on the verge of coming to a hard decision. The Bomber also did it and he had always smiled while waiting for what their internal ramblings had come up with.

Les shrugged his shoulders. "I guess we can talk to Tank, and see if anything comes free in the next little while. There's only one empty apartment on four and Woody is having woman troubles of his own. I heard him asking Tank if he needs lead time to request it. I guess they're still trying to work it out, but it does not sound promising. Natalie doesn't like his hours and his keeping mum on what he really does here."

He looked at Bobby and grimaced, in spite of himself.

"I'll miss you buddy, and even though we still work together", and he paused. "You still want to work with me, right?"

Bobby reached over and punched him on the shoulder. " Duffus, who else has saved your skinny ass more times than me? Of course I still want to be your partner, but maybe not as a living together partner. Besides, then you can tell me what's going on when we're on surveillance to pass the time, instead of already knowing about it first-hand."

~~~o0o~~~

Unknown POV

I've got to be very, very careful. Ranger will suspect soon that something's up.

Do I have the balls to continue this or will I roll over and cave? At the same time, I want to kill him before he kills me!

Revenge, that's what it's all about.

~~~o0o~~~


	2. Chapter 2

_Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. It has been awhile since I posted anything and let me tell you the nervous stomach butterflies were fluttering. Once again, all mistakes are mine and I credit JE with allowing us to play with her characters. I have an erratic work schedule right now so my posting schedule will also be a bit erratic._

Chapter 2

Rangers POV

Another hang-up. I was just awakened from another one of those damn hang-ups. My wonderful dream of my Babe and I on a white sand beach, holding hands, and yes, strolling into the sunset and I get wakened up from that? Son of a bitch!

This has got to stop!

Here I am dreading any kind of phone call now.

I need to talk to someone, but who. Tank laughed at me a couple days ago saying I was turning into a girl with this talk about my silly feelings. Well, that was until our discussion on the mats. I hope his cracked rib heals soon. I need all the back-up help I can get.

Maybe it's time to call in Hector. He's one scary SOB at the best of times and while my men are honestly afraid of him, I know that I'm safe around him. Why, you ask?

Well, I rescued him from his lifestyle by saving his family from a 'cleansing' by his former gang. He'd gotten too powerful and a number of them figured that he needed to be erased along with anyone he was related to. I had gotten wind of it, all the while still working on my own mission in the area. I made sure he got told in time. Two birds with one stone be damned. He got the whole flock with one incendiary. Quite the house fire, said the Fire Chief.

I climbed out of bed. Sleep was officially over now even though it was only 4am. Close enough.

The gym had a few men working out and I mentally placed them in my head and strode over to the equipment at the other end of the room. I wanted to dwell on my workout but suspected that I might be a bit distracted as it would even busier as the morning progressed.

After stretching I stepped on a treadmill and dialed up my program.

As I ran, I tried not to dwell on my situation, but my mind continued to want to and soon I gave up and really started to look at the facts. Had it only started a week ago or was I just becoming aware of the possibility that it had started sooner than that? My mind continued to drift back.

~~~o0o~~~

Flashback

I was in the gun range and thought I would try out the new rifle that had just been delivered. While it was earmarked to be used by Ram, he and I had shared weapons. After quickly looking it over and marvelling at the comfortable feel in my hands, I loaded in the ammunition from the box marked for that piece then sent the target down the line to sight it in. When I fired the first shot, I got blow-back and the weapon misfired almost taking out my eye. I was always stressing safety but the eye protection I had on definitely saved my eyesight that day. What I did have was a powder burn on the side of my face that was stinging and already turning red.

I had Bobby check me out and he gave me a salve to put on the burn.

Heading to my office to write up a report of the incident, I saw Ram in the break room. I strode over to him and motioned him to follow me to my office, and to close the door behind him. He looked uncomfortable and stood at attention in front of my desk.

Never once to mince words I asked, "Did you have any issues with the new rifle when you were sighting it in this morning?"

Ram looked surprised. "No, she sighted in like a dream and I thought it was one of the best I've used in some time."

I nodded my head. "I shouldn't need to even ask you but did you clean it properly after use?"

Ram looked almost indignant at the implied insult. "I finished test firing her and took it to the work room and gave her a really nice cleaning. I knew you wanted to try her out today, but I know I did a good job making it safe."

I pulled up the video of my experience and Ram whistled. "I'm glad you were OK Ranger, but when I left, it was fine and ready to go."

I looked again at the video and shrugged. Stranger things had happened and it could have been something internally weak in the weapon.

"Well, I've ordered it returned to the vendor for warranty replacement since it was brand new. Hopefully we get the new one soon. You haven't mentioned it but you don't have anything scheduled that you know of, right?"

Ram shook his head no, and made a mental note that he would go down to the room and personally check out the weapon. He was fully trained in armaments and wanted to double check that he had not missed something.

He walked out the door at my permission to leave nod.

My mind flashed back to before the incident and I remembered telling a couple of men in the break room of my desire to go down to try it. I still had some paperwork needing my attention so if someone had wanted my time slot it was now open. I juggled my schedule around and found a time later on and had re-booked much later in the day.

I accidently brushed my hand over the burn and hissed. Stephanie would be pissed at me lecturing me on being more careful. Then I smiled thinking how she could fix my boo-boo.

End Flashback

~~~o0o~~~

My program was nearing the end and as the machine started the cool down process. I remembered two days later Luis had come to me asking me not to use my office for a couple of hours. He had noticed that when he had tried to use the wall plug behind a bookcase that it has given him a shock and a black singe mark had appeared over the face plate and up the wall. He had called in an electrician who upon checking had noted that somehow a number of plugs were malfunctioning and until it was re-wired, I should refrain from using any of the electrical outlets. A number were behind furniture or out of the way and weren't used on a regular basis so he had no idea when or how they had malfunctioned. I had put it down to a sheetrock screw causing the problem since we'd done some renovating lately. Luis ran a couple of extension cords from the main office for my equipment until everything was repaired. As it turned out, I was out of my office for the next few days visiting Boston. I had smelt fresh paint upon my return and believed the problem had been alleviated.

I was starting to get a feeling. I refused to believe that I had a 'spidey sense' but the simple fact that there were too many things starting to point to a something or someone against me.

~~~o0o~~~

Her in-box finally empty and Stephanie heaved a sigh of relief. Her back hurt from sitting and her butt was well past the numb stage.

She really wanted to head home and take a shower. Rex needed to be fed and she remembered that she had one tiny tub of Ben and Jerry's left. Today seemed the perfect day to clean out her freezer. After all, her mother always harped at her that one should never keep frozen food too long.

She looked at Ranger's closed door. He usually grabbed lunch from the break room and ate in his office, sometimes with Tank in there, or Les and Bobby. But, for the past few days she had noticed him taking all his meals up on seven. He looked fine, but…... She could almost believe that there was a mission upcoming. She didn't have that 'spidey-sense' feeling that something was wrong, yet.

Stephanie stood up and shook her cargoes down over her combat boots. She would have preferred to wear her favorite Cat boots but the dress code forbade anything other than the standard issue footwear. Even Ella walked around with a pair on.

She had already shut down her computer and opened her drawer to pull out her purse. She looked at her issued weapon in its holster sitting beside her purse, pursing her lips at the RangeMan requirement that she carry it anytime she was working for them. She closed the drawer, leaving the weapon inside. She was off the clock and heading home for crying out loud.

It had been quiet in Stephanie Plum's world lately and nothing had exploded or been firebombed in some time. She had no stalker, and word around town suggested that nobody was out to do her harm.

~~~o0o~~~

Tanks POV

I was watching Ranger as he walked onto five. Something was up but so far my best friend and business partner was not in a sharing mood.

Stephanie, our own personal little vision of an angel, a spitting fire-cat, and a Mother Theresa all rolled into one was working in her cubicle but her nervous mannerisms were making me nervous. When she was jumpy, and Ranger was distracted, there was something probably going down soon.

I hate surprises. I try to be prepared for FUBAR's and try to remain calm through most storms, whatever the cause, but I'm getting older and happiest when everything is humming along smoothly. I like being in command of situations and when a plan comes together, well, I'm a happy camper.

I looked over the control room. Everything appeared to be fine, but…. I can literally feel a tiny worry line is making its appearance by my right eye.

I'd noticed it as I was shaving my head. Now bald and still beautiful, at least that's what Lula had told me this morning, I'd noticed it as a first sign of something about to go down. Whether I like it or not, I'm feeling my world starting to tilt a bit on its axis, a sure sign of trouble in the near future. I've learned many years ago to trust my instincts. They've gotten me out of jams in the past and my hope that being aware of my surroundings keeps me one jump ahead of the future.

I sat at my desk with the door closed. My chair was pushed back and my size 15 boots were perched on the top of my massive desk. Papers were piled on all corners and the computer printouts were threatening to overflow my in-box. I should be working to get this mess under control, but…..

I dropped my feet to the ground with a soft growl. "Son of a bitch!"

My mind drifted back to when those two kids had tried to ruin RangeMan's reputation with thefts literally under our eyes. Everyone had been watching each other and on edge. This had the same early warning signs as that awful time when nobody was trusting anybody, including their partners.

I rubbed my fingers on my bald head back and forth making the skin move back and forth. I liked to call it my own version of a scalp massage. Slamming my hands onto the top of the desk made my pen jump. The signs were all there. Ranger walking around on alert, Stephanie was so busy with Vinnie and yet, Ranger wanted her here for some reason. We were at full staff so everything was being appropriately covered. While her skills were certainly appreciated and valued, our men were all very competent in working on searches. Ranger would, of course, be worried about Little Girl and would use whatever resources we had to keep her safe. With that state of mind, I could well imagine that he had probably toyed with the idea of stashing her someplace and even I shuddered at the fall-out of a maneuver like that. Failing that, he probably was planning on having her shadowed whenever she left the building.

I remembered the gist of the conversations with Ranger over the past few days and his concern that his luck might be taking a turn for the worst. I grimaced now that I'd had laughed it off, joking that he had been around Little Girl too long and her bad luck karma was coming back to bite him.

I pressed some keys on my keyboard looking at the different cameras, willing them to divulge a problem in the making. Everything seemed like it should. Men were working at their cubicles and training down in the gym. The gun range was in use and the garage seemed quiet.

I hate deceit. I've been in situations where people were not who they were supposed to be. Men I have trained and loved like brothers have been on the wrong side of a bullet because of deceit.

At the same time, I hate traitors. Scum-sucking vermin of the world. Traitors were cowards committing deeds that hurt people without showing their hands. Traitors who didn't care who they hurt as long as their mission was accomplished. Traitors who marched to a different beat in the ways of the world. Traitors who professed their way was the right way to draw attention to their viewpoints.

Traitors, I hate traitors.

~~~o0o~~~

Hector had been summoned to see Ranger. The door closed behind him and when it re-opened he had emerged with his own version of a blank face as he headed back down into his dark and mysterious dungeon. Nobody quite knew what he really did down there. He had venomously refused a partner. He was a loner, and he and Ranger had come to an agreement on this arrangement.

The men knew and mostly appreciated what he did for RangeMan. He understood their confusion over the time needed to keep the equipment in tip top shape for one company. Was there a story behind those doors?

Ranger was reliving the conversation.

(Spoken in Spanish)

"Hector, I think I have a stalker. My vehicle has been vandalized a number of times. I'm getting hang-ups on my phone and I think the accident with the vehicle Tank was driving and the egging incident at Shorty's are all related."

Hector stood there with his eyes never leaving Ranger.

"How stupid can someone be? You are Ranger, known to everyone as totally badass."

Ranger shook his head.

"Put your ear to the ground and see if there's something or someone out there wanting to piss me off."

He muttered.

"We've got to find this perv. Unfortunately it looks like we are being targeted by someone or multiple persons who either works or worked here directly or is related to someone who works here. The fact that some things have happened leads me to believe that it's someone literally in the building."

Hector nodded and moved to the door.

"On it, boss."

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger looked at the ringing phone in his hand. Answer or don't answer.

His parents' number popped up on the screen and he sighed.

His mother had a spidey sense every bit as strong as Stephanie. She had been known to phone to 'just talk' but in reality she was testing the waters for something. He remembered as a young man when he was starting to get in trouble with the youth gangs that she would ask him to help her in the kitchen, peeling potatoes or cutting up the vegetables. She called it 'together time', which meant that she was wanting to talk to him.

Ranger pressed the button and spoke.

"Hi Mom."

Mrs. Manoso spoke in Spanish.

"Muy hermano, you never come to see us, you never call. I have to phone you to make sure you are still alive."

Ranger sighed. It was going to be 'one of those' calls.

"Mom, I'm very busy. I have a large company to run and although I have very good employees working for me, I do have many responsibilities."

Mrs. Manoso made a shushing noise and Ranger could just imagine her flicking off his remark with a hand movement showing that it was a lame excuse at the very least.

Ranger looked at the clock on his computer. He had a meeting in half an hour with a potential client and he had wanted to go over the file early and remind himself of their unique security needs.

"I can only talk for a minute Mom. I have a meeting that I really must prepare for."

He knew it was a mistake the minute he said it. He got ready for the lecture.

"I am your mother, who was in labour for two days before you were born. You were sickly as a child and I stayed up with you for many days and nights caring for you. The least you can do is to talk to your getting-older-every-day mother. Who knows, my son, I might keel over any minute now and die without ever seeing you again. The least you can do is to give me a few minutes of your precious time. I think that your friend Tank can certainly help out. He is your right-hand man, correct?"

Ranger knew he was going to be on the losing end of any remark.

"Mom, Tank is extremely busy doing his job and to just delegate him to meet with potential clients too would be placing more on his plate that he needs right now."

He could hear grumbling over the line that he should just pay his employees a bit more so that they could take on additional responsibilities and leave her son to visit his parents now and then. Lord knew, it was so seldom that he came to visit and they weren't getting any younger.

Ranger tried to change the topic.

"How's Dad? Is he still working on the orchard at the back? I know he had some damage from the storm last month."

There was more grumbling over the line as his mother harrumphed.

"Those trees will be the death of your father. He shouldn't be climbing up a ladder to trim the branches at his age. You are so much younger and can do it so much faster. I have had to buy more muscle liniment and he tries to be brave, but I can feel his pain. I tried to explain that you can come and help soon, but he wants it done now so that the trees will not suffer."

She sniffed and Ranger could just see her put a facial tissue to one eye then another.

He groaned. Uh yes, parental blackmail. And his mother knew how to do it very well.

He spoke.

"Mom, hopefully I can come out in a few days. I have a number of things going on right now that need my attention."

He stopped and was about to speak when he heard his next fear.

"That sounds lovely, Carlos. I will hold you to that, my son. Make sure you bring your lovely Stephanie with you. I haven't seen her in FOREVER. You are hiding her from us, yes? I found a photo album that I know she would love to see. "

Ranger mentally groaned and put his free hand over his face and rubbed it back and forth. He could well believe that it was pictures of him as a young boy. His mother wanted more grandchildren and she was determined that if her somewhat backward son and that lovely girl, Stephanie, were to finally agree to get married, AND, if she played her cards right, it would lead to more wonderful additions to her current brood of grandchildren.

There was a knock on the door, and Tank stepped in. He looked a trifle annoyed that Ranger was on the phone but when he got the signal that it was Mama Manoso, he paled and stepped back out, closing the door.

If he wasn't careful, he'd get invited to the house too and to bring 'that nice lady Lula". Right now Tank just didn't want to get ensnared in the discussion Mama M would have with him. He had regretted the last time they had been invited.

Mrs. Manoso had practically adopted Lula into the family and was prepared to show her pictures of Carlos and Tank just after they finished Basic and had come to their home on leave. They were so handsome in their Army uniforms. So manly, and responsible. Her country would be in good hands now that they were helping to keep America safe.

Mrs. Sherman and Mrs. Manoso had met each other at an awards ceremony and they had agreed on many things. One was that their respective sons needed a woman by their sides, and another that whichever mother was around, they would step in whenever they could to help the situation enfold.

Ranger managed to get a word in edgewise.

"Mama, I really need to go. I will call you and let you know when I can free up my schedule to come visit. I will ask Stephanie if she can come too and I know that you two will have a great time (at my expense, he muttered to himself), looking at the pictures."

After a few more sentences of how much he missed seeing her, he hung up.

Ranger leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling.

This potential client was reported to be difficult to deal with, but after the conversation he had just completed, it would be a cake walk!


	3. Chapter 3

_Thank you for your thoughtful reviews. To those who have reviewed as a Guest, thank you for taking the time to read and review. All mistakes are mine although in my world I think my keyboard should take some of the blame._

Chapter 3

Ranger had just finished his morning workout and headed into the locker room. A few men were in there, showering or changing in or out of their gym gear. He walked to his locker thinking of the meetings booked for today and what else was on his calendar. As he approached his locker he smelt a faint odor and reared back.

His nose had identified a scent, a scent from a number of years ago.

Quickly barking out commands he ordered everyone out of the locker room, in whatever state of dress they were in. He ordered both doors to be locked and put a guard on them to keep anybody out until it could be made safe.

Bobby quickly set up a clean area. "You first Ranger."

He shook his head and motioned that his men should go first.

Bobby shook his head. "Sorry, Ranger, but I'm pulling rank here. These guys weren't anywhere near where you smelled whatever you smelled. Let's get you checked over first then these guys will be next."

Bobby, who was dressed in a full Hazmat suit motioned for him to stand still. With a quick snip of his scissors, his shirt, shorts and shoes were slit open and Harold, also wearing a full suit bagged and sealed it shut. He caught the camo g-string that was tossed his way, slipped it on and stood still.

Bobby asked questions like did he feel OK, was his throat beginning to feel scratchy, were his fingers or toes starting to tingle. Hearing no to all the questions, he swabbed skin samples and sealed them into evidence baggies. After he was satisfied, he threw a pair of baggy gym shorts toward Ranger who slipped them on and put his feet into the shower sandals Harold had given him.

"Let me know when you've finished and any results. I'm calling a meeting on seven with the Core Team."

Bobby nodded his head and mentally cleared his schedule for the foreseeable future. He was right in the middle of surprise medicals and could literally feel the anticipated sighs of relief from the men who were listed for today.

Bobby and Harold were kept busy processing all the men from both the locker room and the gym checking that they were safe. Fortunately nobody there had their lockers near Ranger and were sent to their apartments sporting a new pair of gym shorts and shower sandals. In their hands was a disposable bottle of disinfectant soap.

It took over an hour, but the Core Team were now sitting in the living room up on seven. Tank was sitting in his usual seat in the big comfy armchair. Les and Bobby were lounging on opposite ends of the couch. Ranger paced in front of the tv and thought about what he was going to say.

"I lost most of a team on a mission four years ago when we happened onto an abandoned village while looking for our objective. There was a smell we had never encountered before and when I came around the corner to my locker a few minutes ago, I smelled it. Tests back then confirmed that it was a poison not seen often and even today is without an antidote. The results from the tests that came back confirmed a poison so diabolical that anybody touching a surface with it on, would literally die within hours. Nobody who had perished that day was shipped home due to the danger and caskets were returned to the families, empty. "

He checked the text coming in on his new phone then continued.

"Luis will greet the team I've called to have the entire locker room disinfected. There was a priority on this and they should be here very soon from Poison Control in Washington. They have the materials needed to make it safe. Until then, the locker room is out of bounds and the personnel will need to change into and out of their gear in their own apartments."

He looked around. Was it time to spill what was bothering him?

Tank looked at his best friend.

"Spill it Ranger, just spill it. You've been keeping something bottled up and we are your friends. It's time to open up here and let us help."

Ranger looked at him, then at Les and Bobby. He nodded his head and spoke.

"I think I have a stalker."

Bobby and Les smiled and looked at each other. Was he joking?

Tank shifted in the chair and spoke. "I'm not saying that you do or you don't but the fact that you've been questioning some strange things lately makes me consider this something to ponder. I admit that we've been bothered by some minor disturbances that are really starting to piss me off. I could be convinced that you are not just dreaming up a scenario like Little Girl seems to have happen to her fairly frequently. Can you give us some reason how you came to this conclusion?"

He watched as Ranger started to pace once again. Ranger pacing was never a good sign.

After glaring at Les and Bobby who gained their blank faces almost immediately, he literally held up one of his fingers.

"First, my car being keyed." Another finger. "My windshield being smashed with possibly a baseball bat." One more finger in the air. "It's almost the end of the school year and the egg incident at Shorty's could be part of some juvenile prank. I'm not as worried about that. The video we have upon closer examination looks like a smallish arm tossing the eggs. I'm leaning to an opportunity more than maliciousness."

He looked around.

"Then, back to more serious incidents, like the brake line and emergency cable being partially cut. The issue of the new rifle down in the gun range. How about the electrical in my office being tampered with."

He paused.

"I had a few snide comments but I know what I saw with the glint off a scope when I was cuffing Regan Bellamy."

He looked at the men then spoke again.

"I've been getting hang-ups on my phone and the calls have been blocked. I've contacted Hector on that and hopefully he can shed some light on the sender or senders. And now, the poison in the locker room."

He looked at each of them.

"I hate to admit it and I've glanced over the employee list but I'm fairly confident that it's someone in my building."

Les, Bobby and Tank shook their heads and straightened up. Their employees had all been extensively interviewed and the references had been above reproach. They had been rigorously tested both physically and mentally. These were the cream of the crop, the best of the best.

He paced back and forth and his hands clenched by his sides. His face had taken on a reddish hue which usually denoted severe anger.

"My building, my men! Someone or a number of someones who I hired, is plotting against me!"

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie was at her cubicle at RangeMan, but her computer was off. Her desk was clear of any paperwork and she just sat there thinking.

Yesterday had been a really bad day in the life of Stephanie Plum. All her attempts to capture her FTA's had fallen flat. It had been days since Connie had any work for her and she was motivated to clear her files. Rent was due in a few days and she was short. RangeMan had stepped in with paycheques but the simple fact that she was now depending on the supplementary money from them did not sit well. She was trying to stand on her own two feet financially, and frankly, being a bounty hunter was more of a sideline than an occupation.

Doing due diligence, (asking at Giovanni's) she knew that Jason Kennedy always shopped for his mother on Tuesdays between ten and twelve. Unfortunately, he had slipped through her fingers as he pushed her into a crowd of shoppers in the store, knocking both her and an elderly couple down. She had stayed to render assistance and although they would be OK, word around town was that the only ones she was catching were using walkers.

Willy Sheridan had left a note on his apartment door addressed to her saying that he was on holidays and would come back when he was good and ready.

Tyler Manning was in the hospital with kidney stones.

Dragging her tired body to her parents' home for supper, her mother had held the door open when she arrived, and proceeded to tell her how many people had already phoned today telling her their side of what they had seen at the meat market.

Grandma Mazur had stated that the couple were her best bingo buddies and if they didn't come, their good luck karma would head to another table.

Rex had totally ignored her upon her return to her apartment that evening, even turning his nose up at her food offering.

She sighed and slumped even lower into her chair.

She was getting tired of rolling in whatever garbage was near as she wrestled down and cuffed her FTA's, returning them to the justice system where most of them belonged anyway. She had mused more than once that she was getting ready to retire from bond enforcement. Lula and Connie had nodded at her thoughts on the matter. While unhappy that their working relationship might be changing, they agreed that someday she could get seriously hurt.

Lula was now handling the really low bonds, like Eula, and Mooner and Dougie. Stephanie was still handling the 5 - 15 thousand range and there seemed to be a never-ending stream of files, then nothing for days or even a week. Crime had changed in the past year and the middle ground had become more dangerous. Vinnie was getting vicious in voicing his complaints that she was taking too much time to find and return the FTA's. She had been scraped and bruised and without RangeMan help, some of the take-downs might have turned more deadly. Depression was rampant and people were a bit more desperate at their new financial situations.

RangeMan had been mulling for months backing away on bond enforcement since their own security business was expanding at breakneck speed. Ranger had finally made the decision and had advised both Vinnie and Lee Sebring in writing the date that they were terminating their working arrangements. The end-date had passed and Ranger had never been known for backing down.

Vinnie had resorted to pleading with Ranger but he was adamant that the time had come to end the contract. Harry was breathing down Vinnie's neck for successful conclusions to every case, and he was finally resorting to having to pick and choose his clients. Unfortunately the larger bonds were where most of the money was and Vinnie literally whimpered when he had to turn more than one away with nobody to do the job.

Lee Sebring had also cut back on his bonds with RangeMan backing off.

Ranger had met both Lee and Vinnie and had mentioned that there were lots of ex-military or police who could do the job. He would put out the word and maybe someone would come along.

Almost as if fate had stepped in, a new one-man company arrived in town and apparently he wasn't afraid to mix it up. He was young, brash and fresh out of the military. Jeff Bowman had contacted both Vinnie and Les and made his demands. He wanted a bigger cut of the bond but was willing to take on any and all cases for both of them.

He was eerily polite to Stephanie and the other ladies in the office. The feeling he gave off made them believe that they were there to allow him to do his job and nothing else.

Stephanie had resorted to having Connie call when she had files and would dash in and out when Jeff wasn't near. This was no way to conduct business and she felt that the time was coming when a change was going to happen.

Now adding to that, Stephanie had felt the tension rolling off Ranger anytime she was near to him. She shrugged her shoulders and came to the conclusion that when it was time and if and when she needed to know more, he would elaborate.

She stood with her mouth opened in astonishment when Ranger stopped at her cubicle.

"Babe, can I see you in my office?"

She nodded her head but he had already left.

Looking around she noticed that her Merry Men were continuing to look their usual efficient selves, but there was an underlying tension in the office. Was it something more serious than a heavy workload?

RangeMan Incorporated was now a very large company country-wide and with a number of new branches getting ready to open out west the workload was increasing. There was some rumblings that some of the Trenton men would be transferring to other branches in the not too distant future to train some of the new men anticipated to come in.

Stephanie closed the door behind her and headed to the chair in front of the desk, but Ranger motioned for her to keep coming, sat her on his lap and nuzzled behind her ear, a favorite spot.

He took a breath and said, "Babe, I have a problem."

Stephanie leaned back to give him better access and sighed. He was finally going to talk to her.

She spoke almost haltingly. "Is it me? I try to pick up after myself so that Ella doesn't have to work as hard when I stay over. I'm getting used to the diet you and your men embrace. Bobby has me doing more strength and endurance training now and Ram says my gun scores have improved. He joked yesterday that once I opened my eyes to shoot, my scores improved."

Ranger laughed. He had dealt with all kinds of personalities and was absolutely positive that when Stephanie was surrounded by confident people doing and saying positive comments, that she would come into her own as a strong person herself. He had seen the signs the first time he met her.

He pulled her even closer with his arms around her and squeezed gently.

"I am very proud of how you've embraced my chosen lifestyle, Babe. No, it's nothing like that."

He wrapped one finger through a curl on the side of her head and thought again how to explain his thoughts.

Before he could speak, she spoke again. "I'm sorry I damaged another Merry Man yesterday. I warned him that Mr. Pidwerbeski had a weak heart and that he didn't like to be scared. The gun is usually a cap pistol but last night Grandma Mazur told me that he bought a real gun from Mrs. Friesen so she could get money to feed her cat."

Ranger nodded his head. Hawk would be on light duty for a couple of weeks for the gunshot wound to his shoulder. While he was recuperating, Tank would ensure that he would be taking extra training on how to be aware of his surroundings. Working with Stephanie usually came with at least one wrinkle on a normal take-down. He should have been more vigilant. Stephanie could easily have been the one shot.

He leaned her back against his chest and spoke before she could say more.

"I've always believed that my company and the men who serve under me were loyal, but I have recently become aware that there might be some kind of plot against me."

Stephanie immediately shot up almost hitting Ranger under his jaw with her head.

"I know that this is something you've never worried about before. These are your men, your employees, your fellow soldiers you are talking about."

He nodded his head and sighed. Oh boy, this was serious. Ranger never sighed!

"Babe, there are just too many incidents happening right now for me to ignore or put down as co-incidence."

He proceeded to tell her what he believed.

She leaned back into his embrace and laid her head on his strong, muscular chest.

"Well, damn!"

They sat each marshalling their thoughts.

Stephanie looked at the papers by Rangers' hand and noted colored lines on the top sheet. She sat up, and looking at him for permission, she pulled the sheets closer. Noticing that there were names of all the employees in the Trenton office she looked back at Ranger as he grimaced.

She noted the green lines stroked through Tank, Les, Bobby, Ella and Luis and her name. She looked at the blue lines and reverently ran her finger over Manny, Eric and Taylor's name. A tear threatened to slip down her cheek as she relived the terrible timeline of their deaths.

She looked at all the yellow lines through a number of the names. She noted a black pen sitting on the desk.

Ranger spoke.

"Babe, I let the Core Team know and when I mentioned the possibility of a safe house for you they all literally grimaced. They are well aware of your stubbornness about being kept cooped up. I think I know your answer, but I just have to ask. If the need arises, would you be willing to disappear and hide out until this is over?"

Stephanie was already shaking her head.

"No way, Ranger! I'm not going to and if you try to force me, I will fight you with everything I have. I think I've already proven to you that I'm in for the long haul, so I'm not hiding out. If I hide out, you have to come too!"

Her nose had flared and her eyes had taken on what almost looked like sparks as she spoke. She tried to climb off Ranger's lap but he held her even tighter as he responded.

"I know when I'm outnumbered, but please promise me that you will carry a panic button, at the very least your stun gun and accept back-up when you go out."

She slowly nodded her agreement and snuggled back into his embrace.

He spoke again. "If you won't go into a safe house, would you move onto seven with me? The rat can come too. I just want you to be safe, Babe. That apartment you live in is a nightmare. A six year old could break in and everyone knows where you live. I know you love your elderly neighbors but if someone is targeting me and maybe you because of me, they could well be in danger. Please, Babe. I need you to be safe."

She considered the request. She loved her neighbors and while they were some of the nosiest neighbors she had ever met, and that included the street where her parents lived, she knew they were ill prepared for anything sinister happening. Most of them would have difficulty using the stairs if there was an emergency. Most of them had hearing loss and took their hearing aids out at night. Most of them had no extra money at the end of the month for anything but the essentials and finally, if she moved out, they might get some peace and quiet in their building.

Then to add to the effect that if she moved into the RangeMan building, well, there was Ella, and her cooking and cleaning, and the guys that she trusted most of all. There was the possibility of using one of RangeMan's vehicles which always seemed to have gas in it, and ran properly, never stranding her at the most inopportune time. And finally, well, there was Ranger. Ranger in the living room, relaxing in lounge pants that rode low. Ranger sitting across from her eating at the breakfast nook for meals or laying on the couch watching movies. Ranger in the shower. And most of all, Ranger in bed. Her nether regions started to tingle and the decision, although never in doubt, confirmed that she would, confirmed to them both what the answer would be.

"I can head to my apartment and pick up my stuff tonight. I have a few searches running and I'm anxious to see the results."

Ranger shook his head no.

"I already alerted Ella and she's on her way now with Maurice and Zeke to pack. She'll pick up Rex at the same time and she mentioned that she has a couple of new recipes for his crunchies. I suspect that deep down she has taken a liking to him, as have my men."

Stephanie tried to glare at Ranger at his confidence that she would say yes but instead decided not to fight this one. He just knew that she would never accept a safe house but the fact that moving to seven still gave her the security and protection would also suffice in the keeping safe department. She tried not to dwell on the fact that there might really be someone in the building who Ranger believed was targeting him and she might well be putting a bullseye on her own back for moving in.

Grudgingly she slipped off his lap and stood up.

"I can help, Ranger. I really can. If you want, I can run searches on anyone you want looked at. I have a really great program that practically tells me someone's innermost thoughts and beliefs with just a generic sentence sent by email."

Ranger looked at her and she blushed.

"What I mean is that it can't really tell, but hey, Ranger, it's pretty darn good. Randy designed it and is letting me test-drive it before he sells it. I only had to promise not to let anyone else use it before he does sell it."

Ranger had also stood up by this time. He strode around the desk and corralled her against his desk, almost bending her over backwards. His lips touched hers and she could almost imagine him figuratively undressing her. She shook her head at his advance.

"Oh, no there buster. Not in your office with all those men out there. They all have super hearing, and I have to work out there today, thinking of them knowing what we did in here."

Ranger smiled at the visual. He liked to live dangerously. He was a man of action.

"I'm just going to put that thought on hold, Babe."

He backed off, pulling her up with his arm around her waist.

They both looked down and straightened their clothes before he spoke again.

"I knew I could count on you, Babe. I have always trusted your instincts and I'm hoping that together we can find out who is out to get me. I just can't think why it is happening now. I haven't been on a mission for some time and fortunately we haven't fired anyone in quite some time."

He paused. "I'll have Luis prepare an office for you. I don't want the men suspecting any more than what they are questioning now. There, you can work on this with the privacy it deserves."

Stephanie stood still as she digested the information. This was starting to look more like a permanent situation rather than a single purpose kind of effort.

She shook her head.

"I don't think that's a good idea right now. If the men see me working in a newly created office with my door closed they are really going to suspect something is up. How about I work at my cubicle and just keep everything locked up when I leave my desk?"

Ranger mulled over this bit of information. Sure, it would look less suspicious to the naked eye and she seemed to be able to delve into minute details all the while still working. Maybe she might hear something interesting by accident that would shed light on this.

Grudgingly he nodded, but spoke.

"I don't want to raise any flags out there but at the first sign of trouble, I insist that you move to a safer work station. Until we can find the perp…," and he stopped.

Stephanie lifted her arms reaching around his neck with both arms. Standing on her tippy toes, she gave Ranger a kiss that could quickly turn into something steamier than a chaste peck. Instead, she backed away and headed for the door.

Looking back at him as she opened the door, she said, "We'll find him Ranger, and it will be good."


	4. Chapter 4

_I am in an internet-challenged region and was unable to get internet access to post yesterday. Oh the joys of a secluded lake in Canada._

Chapter 4

Ranger headed out of his office to a client call. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that both Les and Tank looking at each other, debating by a raised eyebrow and a grimace who was going to win. Tank appeared to have won over Lester and strode to the stairs, closely following Ranger down the flights to the garage.

Ranger waited until he was sitting in his truck before looking sideways at his best friend and confidant.

"You couldn't have made it more obvious?"

Tank shrugged nonchalantly. "I've had your back, man, and have for a long time. Like it or not, anytime you head out of the building until this settles down, one of us will be with you, either as a friend or as back-up."

Ranger shook his head and headed out of the garage.

"I should have kept it to myself and figured it out without your help. But, saying that, I do appreciate you having my back."

Tank nodded his head. They drove in silence to the Ronald McDougall Law Office. Ron wanted an upgrade on his security system and after lunch a few days ago with his fellow lawyer friend J.J. Jamieson, had contacted RangeMan. J. J. had mentioned that he had served with Ranger and Ron could trust him.

The secretary was aware of their appointment but still tried not to literally fan herself as the two walked into her office. She tried to appear totally professional in her demeanor but the sight of Ranger and Tank standing in front of her desk sent mental shivers of lust up and down her body and she licked her lips as they walked into her boss's office. Her first thought had been, 'were they ever built', and her next thought was 'whoever climbed them were very lucky, lucky women.'

Ron had his hand out as they closed the door. Striding to the desk they reached over and shook his hand and sat down in the chairs that Ron had gestured to.

Ron smiled to himself at J.J.'s description of the men in front of him. He could just feel the electricity of testosterone rolling off them. Their handshakes had been firm, not overpowering, but confident in their existence on this earth. He liked that in a man. He could tell that they made a good business team and J.J. had assured him that they had no bias to personal and private lifestyles.

"I am not pleased with my present security arrangements and my friend J.J. Jamieson, a lawyer I know referred your company to me. He says you can do good work."

Both Tank and Ranger chuckled at the back-handed compliment. Ranger was still chaffing after the last bill J.J. had submitted to him. He was still mulling over whether it was a joke or not. J.J. had a wicked sense of humor.

He was pondering how he was going to get out of paying for one of J.J.'s new prosthetic legs. J.J. had mentioned that whenever someone from RangeMan was going rock climbing that they give him a call. He had accepted an invitation by Ranger and Tank to get away one weekend and a rod on the artificial leg had broken. They had taken turns rappelling him back down the hill.

J.J. had partially blamed the guys because he had told them he hated to be monkey in the middle and they had ignored him. He had tried to muscle Ranger from taking the lead but quickly realized that if Ranger wanted to lead, not many men could convince him otherwise. Consequently when his rope got caught on a rock overhang, he had attempted a difficult manoeuver to free it. The strain on the artificial leg snapped the steadying rod.

Ranger wiped the smile off his face and spoke. "While we are pleased that he still thinks of us as kindly as he says, someday you might want to question why he ordered the most expensive leg on the market."

All three men chuckled. It was a well-known fact that J.J. didn't like seconds on anything.

The three got down to business. Ron explained why he wanted an overhaul and Tank took notes while Ranger quizzed him on his needs and wants in a security system.

"I'll have my installation specialist make an appointment to go over your building and personal requests. I'm sure we can accommodate your requirements and of course, if you have any questions, Hector should be able to solve any concern. At the same time, you can always contact Tank or myself personally."

He laid a card on the table facing Ron and both he and Tank stood up. They were about to reach over the desk to shake his hand once again when Ron put up his hand.

He pushed the toggle on his wheelchair moving backwards, then moved the toggle and headed around his desk to where they were standing. Ron pressed a button and the chair began to lift, standing him upright so that he was almost as tall as they were. He then held out his hand and shook both hands.

As they walked to the door, they could hear the chair descend back down to its rest position.

Ron shifted in his wheelchair after the door closed. He may have no power from his chest down but that did not take away from his mind. He was a well-respected property lawyer who had been injured in a car accident on the evening of his Grade 12 graduation. He and his friends had been drinking. Riding as a front seat passenger without his seatbelt fastened, he had been ejected from the car when it had flipped going too fast around a curve. He had been the most seriously injured. When he woke up in the hospital he kept hearing how lucky he was to be alive. Unfortunately at 18, he had no desire to feel 'lucky'. He had his life ahead of him and strapped to a turning bed for possibly the rest of his life held no interest.

He was angry at his lot in life and ignored the machines in the gym at the rehab facility. At first he had refused to even try to regain some strength. The staff were patient and with a lot of psychological therapy gradually he had accepted some help and some simple exercises. He came to realize that while there was still life in his body he had some meaning to his life and decisions to make.

He had always wanted to be a lawyer. Hell, he had already been accepted to Harvard but with his future uncertain he had sent back his registration unsigned. It had taken him three years to get that precious letter once again accepting him into the freshman class.

He was sitting in the back of the large lecture hall in his wheelchair as a guest speaker was introduced. He held the entire audience in suspense as he elaborated about how one turn of events could shape a young persons' future. It was only toward the end when the guest lecturer started to pace that Ron could see the prosthesis. The address ended and J.J. Jamieson had received a standing ovation.

Students had flocked down to shake hands and congratulate him on his accomplishments. Ron waited for his friend to wheel him out of the theatre. There was a steep ramp and he had been unable to manage getting himself to that lecture hall until he had swallowed his pride and asked for help. The paperwork for getting an electric wheelchair was buried somewhere still in the works and until then, well, he had to rely on the antiquated but sturdy economy model.

The crowd thinned and J.J. Jamieson climbed the steps toward the door. He stopped in front of Ron and held out his hand thanking him for attending his lecture.

Ron just sat there tongue-tied until he literally shook himself and spoke.

"Thank you for a most interesting presentation. I almost didn't come but was literally pushed to this lecture hall to listen to you. I have a feeling that my friend wanted me to see that what limitations I have are mostly in my head when it comes to practising law."

J.J. chose his words carefully. He had been advised by the Dean about a potential law student in a chair.

"You may have a physical limitation but the fact that Harvard accepted you means that they value the brain that you have and the ability to, shall I say, think on your feet."

Ron nodded his head but he still looked a bit shocked that this famous lawyer was talking to him.

J.J. took a card out of his wallet and placed it in the side pocket of the wheelchair.

"Call me. I have a good ear and I do understand."

J.J. walked to the swinging door and pushing it forward, headed out of the lecture hall.

They had chatted over the phone many times. J.J. had attended his convocation and one of his friends had offered Ron an articling position.

When Ron had opened his own office, a box was delivered containing a bottle of wine celebrating another milestone.

J.J. met his new care-giver and showed no objection that they were looking at a relationship. Everyone deserved to be happy, and it was very apparent that they were a good match. Might marriage and children be in the future, who was to know?

~~~o0o~~~

Tank and Ranger drove back to the office. They were discussing what special measures that Hector should be concentrating on when out of the corner of their eye they saw a nondescript brown car run the red light. Ranger had no time to react, and braced themselves as the vehicle smashed into the side of their vehicle, pushing it across the lane and up against a cement retaining wall. The airbags deployed and collapsed almost as fast, but by that time the driver's door of the car was open and the driver had fled the scene.

Two men ran to the vehicle with their cell phones to their ears calling 911 and Ranger's phone began to ring.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie was at her desk working. She had taken a copy of the list and was slowly going through the names. Each time she typed in a name she remembered who they were. She had started on the names of the men who had left for whatever reason. She knew she had to start somewhere and while there were only twenty in total, she wanted to confirm they were OK.

It was already a question where to start, alphabetically or first or last one out. She shrugged her shoulders and just decided to go by the files as they had been handed to her. Probably Ranger had already been through them and to re-shuffle so many thick files might draw some unwanted attention.

She typed in the first name. He had come and gone before she had even started working at RangeMan.

Derek Kinney. He had only been employed by RangeMan for just over a year, but what a year. He was a fitness guru among fitness fanatics. He had moved back to Maine to start his own business as a personal trainer and was just this month opening his fifth franchise. He had done well. His wife was also a personal trainer and it looked like she was helping to train elite figure skating athletes.

Stephanie really couldn't see a reason why Derek would want to harm Ranger and figuratively stroked his name off in her mind.

On to Thomas Granger. Now he had been a character. He was even more of a prankster than Santos was. Nobody had been left out and men had almost sighed in relief when he left. He had returned home to help his sick dad on the farm. From all accounts he had met a former school mate and they were tying the knot in the near future. She was certainly at home on a farm and they had improved it immensely. She loved horses and they were busy boarding and helping to train other peoples' animals.

Stephanie crossed another name off her mental list. RangeMan's search programs were excellent but Randy's program was much more in-depth. Before she had had to go in and out of programs when doing an extensive search but this one was letting her couple different searches then combining them for possible issues and time management savings. Time was money and the bottom line was always important in a company the size of RangeMan Incorporated.

Stephanie was going to Ranger when this was over and try to convince him to buy it for the guys. Mind you, Tank usually made the decisions when it came to purchasing equipment for all the branches, but he was hard to convince. Obviously Ranger was the final decision maker, but the men joked at how Tank figuratively rubbed two nickels together and got change. Tank made sure RangeMans's money was well-spent.

Onward she typed, checking carefully and either confirming that they were OK, or earmarked for further in-depth study.

She could hear the chatter pick up in the monitoring room and putting down her pen, she stood up and strolled over to check it out. Her face paled as she listened to the men talking to Ranger and sending a vehicle to assist. She walked behind Woody and looked over his shoulder to see the monitor and read the 911 calls from the men and the deployment of a fire truck, an ambulance and two black and whites to the scene. She could hear Woody talking to Ranger confirming that neither of them were injured and had to hold onto the back of his chair when she heard that they were trapped in the vehicle waiting for assistance.

Les came over and stood by her, rubbing her back soothingly, trying to keep her calm.

"Beautiful, we've got a vehicle on the way. A tow-truck has been dispatched to pull back the car that seems to be embedded in the drivers' side. Ranger's uninjured and Tank is also OK, just trapped as the truck was pushed into a retaining wall and they can't exit the vehicle from either side. As soon as they pull back the car, they can move the truck and force the doors open."

He tried to calm her as he mused. "Actually they could get out if they had to by crawling out the drivers side window. I would have liked to see Tank get over the centre console and wiggle out. Now that would be worth a picture or two."

Just then Bobby came up behind Les and slapped the back of his head, messing up a whole section of spiked hair.

"Do you really want to see Tank with his cracked rib crawl out? I know I don't. He's going to be pretty pissed off as it is."

Les sucked in his breath. Yeah, he really liked to breathe without wincing.

All work was forgotten as she waited for word on Ranger. She visibly sagged and sat down in a vacant chair when the call came in that the men were on their way back to RangeMan headquarters. She heard Bobby order that they report to him on four upon their arrival to be checked out.

Stephanie stood to follow Bobby down the stairs, but he put up his hand.

"I'll just quickly examine them and then you can see him, Steph. He sounds fine, actually he sounds really angry that it happened to his truck, but I'll just do a few tests."

He cheekily grinned. "I could release him into your custody and then you can re-check, if you want."

She smiled a shaky smile and prepared to head up to seven. She just couldn't concentrate right now. She headed to her desk and tossed all her work into her desk drawer, locking it away.

Fobbing her way into the apartment on seven she headed in to say hi to Rex. He was sleeping with his little hamster butt hanging out of the soup can. She noted that he had some fresh fruit in his bowl and some kind of hard crunchies. It certainly didn't look commercial and she made a mental note to ask Ella if she had been experimenting with some new recipes again.

She did notice that there was a cake dome on the counter and sidled over to check it out. Ranger and Tank might have been the ones directly affected by the accident but Ella certainly understood that when Stephanie was stressed, food, and especially sweet dessert food helped to calm her down.

She lifted up the lid and found a bowl of caramel popcorn. She grabbed a handful off the top and popped a couple into her mouth. The caramel coating made her smile. No commercial popcorn tasted like this.

She heard the door open and a key fob drop into the dish. She quickly put the lid back on over the bowl and hurried out into the living room in time to see Ranger grimace as he leaned against the wall and then bend over to untie his combat boots.

She put her hand on his arm and stopped him from continuing, then knelt down and gently untied the laces and motioned for him to lift his leg as she slid the boot off one foot then another.

Ranger didn't fight the act of kindness and put his hand out to help her to stand up. He pulled her into an embrace. Stephanie tried not to press too hard into him, but it appeared that Ranger needed the physical contact and he ignored her efforts and pulled her even closer. She could feel the tension slowly release and leaning back, she looked into his eyes, gauging his emotional state.

Ranger spoke. "I'm fine Babe. I might have a few bruises from the seatbelt when the vehicle hit us. Tank is also OK."

Stephanie shuddered in spite of herself. She had had a flash-back to one of her more spectacular car crashes when a skip had tried to run her off the road and had pinned her in her car. She had spent many tense minutes before the emergency personnel had freed her. Trapped in the car as they sprayed protective foam, she had smelt gas, fully expecting to be burned alive at any moment. The fire personnel, using The Jaws of Life had finally ripped off the driver's door and freed her. Ranger had been there to comfort her. She found out later that a number of her Merry Men had tracked down her skip, and had escorted him to the police station sporting a few bumps and bruises. The official report stated his injuries must have been as a result of his car impacting her car.

Ranger headed to the bedroom, tugging his shirt out from his cargoes, and dropping everything in the laundry hamper. He headed to the shower.

Stephanie didn't waste any time also stripping. She was going to check out her man and in the shower was as good a place as any to make sure he was OK.

~~~o0o~~~

Lula was also checking out her man. He had phoned her that he was coming over early and she was waiting at the door as he walked in. She had no idea what had happened but his voice sounded, well, off.

He winced as he stepped in and Lula tried to be gentle as she gave him a hug. His rib was still healing and she was a strong woman. He headed to the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee into his mug, then sat down gingerly on a kitchen chair.

"We were broadsided by a car running a red light, Lula Belle. It pushed us against a retaining wall and we had to wait until they could pull the car away where it was smashed into Ranger's door before I could exit the vehicle. I'm fine. Between the seat belt and the airbags, nothing is damaged. Unfortunately the driver of the car took off after he hit us and is still at large. The police let us know that the car was stolen and are dusting it for fingerprints. In their preliminary report, they could smell liquor and saw some empty bottles on the passenger side floor."

He looked at her. They had each stated that they were unsure of making any formal announcement about their relationship and to the casual observer they appeared just to be 'friends with benefits'. Tank knew in his heart that Lula was the only woman he wanted to spend his life with, but she was so very afraid of any kind of commitment and up to now they were just casual. They both still had their own places and tried to maintain the façade of living apart, but most of the time Tank was with Lula. Could it be time to pop the question about getting a place together? He used to enjoy living in the RangeMan building being close to the action but lately he was wishing that there was a buffer between work and down time.

He thought of Ranger and Stephanie and their own issues with commitment. Everyone could see the electricity between the two of them but they seemed totally unaware. He shook his head. When it came to relationships and commitments, they all appeared to be fucked up.

~~~o0o~~~

Hector glared at his equipment. He had the best that money could buy and he couldn't find out who was targeting his boss?

Stephania had let it slip that she was testing one of his programs before going up for sale. He hated that little shit Randy but he did admit that Randy knew computers. Maybe if he asked her, she could put in a good word and Randy might let him test new material too.

Taking a knife out from one of his many hiding places, Hector was planning his next move. If he moved some of the equipment around in his room, he could set up whatever Stephanie managed to get Randy to release for bench-testing.

Stephania could work with anyone but the few dealings he'd had with Randy made it difficult to actually like anything about him. Hector shrugged. He knew he was also a bit difficult to work with but that added to the mystery. Working with military men and their regimented ways made him the unknown element. It was quite exciting some days.

Would anyone miss Randy if someday he just disappeared?

Hector shook his head. No, Stephania would miss the asshole.

He took a soft cloth from a drawer and began to polish the blade. While it shone already, he rubbed the blade gently, checking the edge with his thumb and nodding his head. It would do the job if asked.

~~~o0o~~~

Lula phoned Stephanie.

"I'm 'a gonna bust a cap upside his ass."

Stephanie groaned. She didn't have enough money to bail out Lula right now but the situation between that Jeff guy and Lula was getting more serious. Lula refused to stay out of his way and they glared at each other every time they were in the same vicinity.

"How about I bring in breakfast tomorrow? I need to pick up files anyway and we can talk about it."

Stephanie knew that her financial picture was a whole lot better than Lula's and her rent was also due.

"Ok, but don't bring that sample box. We need to talk and that takes energy, White Girl."


	5. Chapter 5

_Thank you for reading and reviewing up to this point. All mistakes are mine. For our American friends, Happy July 4th celebrations, May you have a day filled with fun, family and fireworks._

Chapter 5

Stephanie strode into the bonds office with a tray of coffees in one hand and a box of assorted donuts in the other. Last night she had convinced Ranger that she would be safe by taking Lula with her on any takedowns that came in. No, she did not need a posse of RangeMan bodyguards, and certainly, no, he was too busy running his own business to shadow her. After stating her views on her position on the matter; well, as she smiled, when one is on top, one has a bit of leverage. Ranger usually wasn't a bottom kind of guy, but he had been distracted and grudgingly agreed.

She had backed down agreeing to the panic button in her pocket and a stun gun In her purse AND she was to contact the monitoring station at RangeMan with each destination. Stephanie admitted that that change had come when Ranger had done his own magic later in the night and she had agreed when he had reclaimed the top.

She grimaced to herself. Yeah, Ranger was very aware of his surroundings all the time. Had he let her think she had bested him or was he just setting her up then getting her to agree to his conditions? Her smile changed to a slight grimace. Calling the control room about every destination. Yeah, she'd been had.

They had also discussed her permanently terminating her employment at the bond office. Luckily, or not, Vinnie was in the main office as she walked in, and refusing to meet with him in private, handed in her resignation letter in front of Connie and Lula. He read the note and his face turned the darkest shade of purple she had seen in quite some time. She had written saying that she would give him two weeks' notice. That should give him time to get his new man ready for an even heavier workload.

Vinnie grumbled about now even family was leaving him high and dry and he turned and stomped away slamming his door in disgust as he vacated the main office.

Stephanie set the coffee tray on Connies' desk, then placed the box of donuts beside it. She sat down in the plastic red chair that she had always claimed as her own and grabbed a donut, literally moments before Lula and Connie could snag her favorite. Somehow the lonely Boston crème had become the most popular followed by the cruller.

Stephanie was determined to bring food tomorrow too. She was weighing in her mind if it would be Pino's or Cluck in a Bucket.

The silence in the office was only broken by the sounds of chewing and the jarring ring of the telephone made them all jump. Connie sighed as she plucked the phone out of the cradle and answered.

"Good Morning, Plum Bonds Office, may I hel…" She stopped and put down her donut. Looking at Stephanie she handed the phone over.

Stephanie was licking the creamy filling off her fingers and grabbed the handset.

"Hello." There was silence. Stephanie shrugged and handed the phone back to Connie. Just then, they heard a big boom and the building rocked. Car alarms were heard all up and down the street and the girls rushed to the window to investigate.

The SUV that Stephanie had driven up in was in flames and pieces were scattered on the street.

Stephanie's cellphone rang and she raced back to her purse sitting on the floor. In her haste she dumped most of the contents on the floor before grabbing the phone and answering it. Before she could say another word, the girls could hear Ranger's voice yelling if she was OK. She nodded her head as she once again stood by the window and then spoke.

"I just walked into the office and we were enjoying a snack. Connie got a call asking for me and when I answered nobody was on the line. Just then, there was a boom."

She slid down the wall holding the cellphone to her ear. She nodded a couple of times, then spoke,

"I'm so sorry. I've destroyed another of your vehicles."

Her face was ashen and she was shaking slightly. The ladies looked at her then out at the burning vehicle. Stephanie had hung up and was now down on the floor crawling to and leaning against Connies' desk. She reached up and dragged the box of donuts down by her. Reaching in without looking she grabbed a sweet treat and proceeded to devour one, then another. Her mouth was full and she mumbled, "Ranger says to stay inside. He's coming to get me and to stay away from the window."

Vinnie came racing out of his office. He looked a bit dishevelled. One shirt tail was tucked in and one suspiciously was out. The ladies looked at him then quickly away.

Connie and Lula continued to stand by the now grimy window watching as a fire truck screeched to a halt and the members jumped out to fight the fire now burning furiously. One firefighter was attaching a hose to the hydrant, while an other stood by the truck. Another was rolling out the hose then sitting on the end preparing for the blast of water to commence knocking down the fire. The fire captain shouted and switches were flipped on the truck and water began to shoot out. The firefighter sitting on the hose aimed the nozzle at the base of the fire and sprayed it back and forth. Fire soon became black and sooty smoke and a fine mist settled over the area.

A black and white pulled up down the street with Big Dog and Carl stepping out of the car. Just then Robin Russell and her new partner climbed out of another which had also pulled up. They all looked down the road and shrugged when two black RangeMan vehicles raced down the street and screeched to a stop.

Ranger and Tank emerged from one and Les and Bobby jumped out of the second. Tank was pushing Ranger to get inside the building as he nodded at Les and Bobby to talk to the police and fire official. He moved behind Ranger as they opened the door. Les was soon talking to the fire captain on the scene and Bobby was taking pictures of the now smoldering wreck.

Ranger pulled her up from where she was still sitting against the desk and gave her a hug. He opened his mouth and only one word emerged: "Babe". A man of few words, all emotion was packed into that one word; relief, anger, love, worry.

He looked at Connie. "I want a copy of the call and then hang up."

Connie nodded her head and walked to her desk. She gave the jumpstick to Tank and looked at Ranger and Stephanie still in each others' embrace. Each person in the room had come to the same conclusion that whoever had phoned didn't want Stephanie injured. They were making a point to target a RangeMan vehicle.

Ranger looked at Vinnie. "As of right now, Stephanie no longer works here. Send the final cheque to her at RangeMan …"

Stephanie pulled out of his grasp and put her hands on her hips, her eyes sparking in anger. "Ranger, you never even discussed this with me! I think I should have a say in this matter."

Ranger looked back at the girls as he physically moved Stephanie to the door. "Do it."

With his arm anchoring Stephanie firmly to his side, Ranger, Tank and Stephanie stepped out onto the street, with Stephanie firmly sandwiched in the middle. Bobby and Lester literally materialized behind them. They made a rapid beeline for one of the vehicles. Ranger pushed Stephanie into the backseat, sitting beside her. With the door now closed, Tank slid into the driver's seat. Bobby and Lester raced to their vehicle. Ranger had his arm around Babe as they headed back to the building.

Pulling into the garage they parked and everyone jumped out.

Stephanie walked on stiff legs to the elevator. This was not over! He could have discussed this in the privacy of his office or up on seven. To just announce to the world without even talking to her that she wasn't going to be doing her job needed to be addressed. Beside the fact that she had just given in her resignation letter, this was going above and beyond.

She looked back at the men as they prepared to take the stairs.

"I need to talk to you, Ranger up on seven."

Ranger stopped whispering to Tank and nodded. "I'll be there in a few minutes, Babe. I want to get this to Hector so he can start working on it."

She nodded and released the door button on the elevator. As the elevator headed upstairs, he looked around.

"Tell Hector this is top priority. Check our vehicles in the garage for anything suspicious, personal vehicles too. Don't let anyone leave until those units are deemed safe. I want a full report when I return."

Tank nodded and his phone was already at his ear.

Ranger headed to the stairway for the trip up the stairs and the other three hung back.

They grimaced at the scenario that was about to unfold upstairs. Ranger hadn't even spoken to her before ordering her files to be taken away? Remembering Stephanie's stiff-legged stance, they were relieved that there would be a number of floors between the 'discussion' that would be happening very, very soon.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie paced back and forth in the elevator as it rose. She was muttering under her breath and one fist slammed into the palm of her other hand. How dare that man! They hadn't even discussed this before he blurted out the order to Connie.

She fobbed open the door to the apartment and stomped inside, unconsciously putting her fob in the dish and taking off her boots. While she was angry at Ranger, it wasn't Ellas' fault and she didn't want to track anything into the suite. She grumbled her way toward the kitchen looking for something to eat. This angry and one of the only things to calm her down was food. She stopped midway down the hall. She didn't want to be calm right now, so turned around and stomped back to the sofa. Sitting down she picked up a pillow laying against the armrest and punched it a few times before putting it aside. Damaging the furnishings would also not be smart.

It was probably only a few minutes later, but to her angry mind it seemed like forever before she heard the lock disengage and Ranger step in. He also put his keys in the dish and took off his boots. She continued to sit in the living room as he stopped in the hallway.

Ranger walked to the couch and it looked like he was going to sit down and pull her to him, but her stiff demeanor stopped him. He could literally feel the anger radiating off her and knew that what he had done had risen her ire. Instead, he sat down on the other end of the couch, the abused pillow now sitting on the middle seat between them.

He started to speak. "Babe, I'm sorry that I didn't discuss this with you before but the moment that the monitoring station alerted me that your vehicle went off line I could only think about checking if you were safe. While Tank drove, talking to you I could only dwell on the fact that your voice meant you were safe. The five minutes that took us to get to the bond office was probably one of the longest five minutes of my life and made me vow that I'd do anything to keep you safe."

He stopped and swallowed, almost painfully.

"Once again, I'm afraid that what is happening to me has involved you too. The fact that they phoned first leads me to believe that they are not targeting you per se but reminding me that they can strike anywhere or any time. That's why I wanted you to move out of your apartment and into the safety of RangeMan until this is resolved."

He spoke again. "I checked with Martin who shadowed you to the bond office and he observed nothing suspicious."

He looked down at his hands and itched to wrap his arms around her. "I am trying to rectify this situation and it is extremely upsetting to me that I have not found out who is targeting me and RangeMan. At the same time, I have to know that you are safe, Babe. I need you in my life and whoever is targeting me and hurts you in the process will be in for a world of hurt when I find out who he is."

He sidled closer and kissed her on the lips, then started to trail kisses along her jaw line and down her neck. She groaned in spite of herself and her anger diffused. They would talk about it, yeah they would, but right now her adrenaline crash was making her weak, her hormones were betraying her and the closeness of Ranger and those magic lips, and those hands under her shirt were too much to fight. Yeah, she would talk to him. Unconsciously she responded with a slight moan, and before they knew it they were trailing clothes on their way to the bedroom. Ranger kicked the door closed with the heel of his foot.

~~~o0o~~~

Hector was working down in his office when Tank banged on the door and turned the handle. The damn thing was locked and instead of using his master key, he waited for Hector to open the door. He had the jumpstick in his hand and slammed it down on the desk.

"This was the call to the bonds office before the vehicle exploded. I think we are all in agreement that whoever did this was ensuring that Little Girl was not in the vehicle when it exploded. If I had to guess, it was detonated remotely and not in direct line of sight at the time."

Hector nodded his head. He would start to work on it right away.

Tank looked around. There were a number of times that he felt the need to step into this room; information, equipment or confirmation. Also, there were times when he wished for more in-depth information to what really was happening in this room. Actually, room was quite the misnomer. It was almost as large as the entire control room and the hum of different equipment, monitors splashing images and cables snaking here and there certainly lent credence to the fact that a lot of information was constantly being gathered, or stored, or hell, who knew what! For all he knew Hector could be planning a mini takeover of a country from down here. He had no assistants and nobody had ever dared to question their mostly-retired gangbanger what he actually did all day.

As second in command Tank had broached the query to Ranger on a few occasions and while he had smiled at the question, nothing had ever been divulged. Maybe they were both planning a hostile take-over for all he knew!

Tank backed out the door. He heard the lock snick into place as he walked away. He really needed to talk to Ranger about this again!

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie finished her breakfast and put on her boots at the door. She was still angry at Ranger for taking her skips away from her and they had discussed it most of the night. Deep down she loved these discussions but they needed to seriously talk about it again. Although, in hindsight make-up sex was pretty fantastic, all things considered.

She stepped onto five and headed to her cubicle. She still wanted to run some more of the names before days end. Unlocking her desk drawer and pulling out her ipod, she grabbed the files she had thrown in the bottom and glanced down.

Hmm, she could have sworn she had been getting ready to work on Max McSorley's file. Yet, there on top was Raymond Tiffany.

She sat back and then shrugged. Yesterday had been stressful and maybe she had moved the files around before locking them away.

She opened the file and started to work. Reams of paper later, she grimaced. Her stomach had been sending little verbal reminders that lunch would be appreciated and soon. There were already a number of tastycake wrappers in her wastebasket but something more might be appreciated soon.

The floor became almost silent and she could just imagine that Ranger and whoever was shadowing him had arrived on the floor.

She stood up and peeked around the soft wall to see which office Ranger was heading for, just in time to suppress a start of surprise as her line of sight was blocked by the man himself. He smiled at her look of surprise.

"Do you want to have lunch with me on seven, Babe?" She nodded her head and once again threw the files in her desk and locked it, as well cleaning up her desk. Who knew when she might be back? It could be in an hour or tomorrow.

She followed Ranger to the stairwell, only slightly grimacing at his refusal to use the perfectly good elevator. Keeping her grumbling to a minimum she almost silently followed him up the stairs. After all, it was only two flights and she could manage that, right?

Ella had already come and gone and the salad along with a tempting salmon casserole were sitting on the counter. Each grabbed bottles of water, silverware and plates and served themselves, sitting across from each other at the breakfast nook.

Ranger looked at his Babe across the table.

"Tank gave the recording to Hector and he is looking at it. He is fairly certain that it did not come from in our building but he's trying to triangulate even tighter."

Ranger looked relaxed as he ate, but he kept sneaking glances at Stephanie as she was now picking at her food. Food was an important staple in his Babe's life and the fact that she was nibbling made him even more aware that something was bothering her.

He noticed a cake dome sitting on the counter and stood up to take his plate to the dishwasher and grabbed it on the way back to the nook.

"I assume this is for you Babe. I heard Ella telling Luis that her baking skills had gone rusty and she was trying out some new recipes. I suspect that you might be on the receiving end of something, as you like to say, sinfully delicious."

Stephanie looked from the cake dome back to Ranger and then back to the dome. She had come up hungry but looking down, her food was barely half eaten.

Ranger set the dome in front of her, plucking the plate from under her nose and replacing it with a small plate and a new fork. He lifted the lid and looked at her face as she smiled. He almost felt jealous that she wasn't saving that smile for him. Knowing her family dynamics, he was well aware that the Plum family showed their love through food, especially dessert food.

Sitting on the tiny pedestal was a coffee cake, with powdered sugar sifted over the top. Ringing the cake were raspberries and strawberries intermixed and what looked like truffles scattered around the base of the cake.

As Ranger sliced then handed a piece to her, he popped a few raspberries and strawberries into his mouth and watched as she took a forkful and lifted it to her mouth. He was prepared for the sound of satisfaction and inwardly smiled at Ella and her sixth sense what Stephanie would like. He appreciated the fact that she had added the fruit to the base, assuming that he would never touch the cake but wanting him to sample something to finish off the meal nonetheless.

Stephanie finished her cake and popped a truffle into her mouth, chewing appreciably.

"I really, really want her to adopt me."

Ranger chuckled to himself knowing that Ella and Luis already had a special place in their heart for his Babe. He suspected that they had already adopted her in the unofficial sense.

She sat back and he could tell that she was thinking. Her bottom lip was sandwiched between her top and bottom teeth and if the stool would swivel, he could well imagine that she would be spinning herself round and round.

She finally formulated her thoughts and spoke.

"Was that phone call to confirm that I wasn't in the vehicle? I didn't feel anything driving up although I must admit I was concentrating on the donuts and how to get my favorite one before Lula and Connie could snag it."

She paused.

"While I am afraid for you, could whoever be doing this is changing who they are targeting? Has it now switched to RangeMan in general and no longer targeting you in particular? Is this just something to throw us off the trail or are we looking at a whole new problem, company wide? Are the guys in danger and how can we figure out who's doing this without making whoever suspect anything? I'm sure that a number of your guys are starting to question what's happening and most of them were around when everyone was under suspicion the last time when those kids were trying to take down your business."

She stopped talking again and drummed her fingers on the counter.

"Ranger, maybe we should put YOU into a safe house until we can find the culprit."

She looked up just in time to see his blank face slam down.

"Babe, I will not take myself out of the picture. I intend to find out who's behind this and get to the bottom of the whole mess."

He looked at her.

"Tank also suggested it and I turned him down too. I'm not going to hide, Babe, so shelve that look you've got on your face."

Stephanie muttered. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander. You wanted me to go into a safe house but you aren't willing to go? Doesn't seem fair somehow."

Ranger stood up.

"My company, my men, my life, Babe."

~~~o0o~~~

Tank phoned Lula. "Lula Belle, are you free this evening? I can bring supper."

He wanted to get out of the building for awhile and unwind. Too many things going on right now and he was getting pissed. He liked peace and order. He was getting too old for problems and FUBAR's.

Heading down to the garage he noticed a camera tilted the wrong way. Mentally he made a note to have Hector adjust it. He scowled slightly. The men on monitors should have picked up on that.

Tank looked at the vehicles in the garage. There were a number of open spaces and he thought that besides the vehicles out on patrols the fleet looked insufficient for proper coverage. He made a mental note to have some brought back from the compound.

He climbed into his Hummer and drove out of the garage.

Hmm, Cluck in a Bucket, or Chinese. He turned at the next corner. Lula was getting much better using chopsticks and he needed to eat more vegetables. Bobby had mentioned that he had gained a couple of pounds since his last physical.


	6. Chapter 6

_Thanks for reading and reviewing. It takes time to set up the whole scenario, but rest assured that there will be some 'developments' very soon. All mistakes are mine and I appreciate JE allowing us to borrow her characters._

Chapter 6

Ranger followed Stephanie down the stairs to five and then headed to their own areas. He was planning on working in the office for the rest of the day and had already advised Tank of that decision. Tank had nodded his head and gone to find Santos. He had a number of errands to do out of the building and wanted to make sure that there was sufficient back-up while he was away.

Tank noticed that the men were starting to notice. Well, damn, they were trained to be observant and he could just hear the whispers here and there.

He headed outside and drove in the direction of the strip mall. He grimaced as he turned into the parking lot. He was meeting Lula there and they were going shopping together. Boy, he was so not looking forward to this but he had promised; well in the afterglow last week he had promised. That woman of his was sneaky and had waited and sprung her request on him at his weakest moment.

Tank grimaced to himself. He had been in his share of situations over the years and had stood strong, never releasing information to the enemy, but the fact that his woman, and he smiled as he thought, his woman had played him like an old violin. He had sung like a canary and not fully realizing until this morning when Lula had reminded him and then the text less than an hour ago again reminding him that he was a goner.

Lula was standing outside the store waiting impatiently for him and his steps slowed as he approached. If the general ever found out how he had folded like a cheap card table, he'd never be able to look him in the eye ever again.

She took his hand and pulled him into the store. There was a salesman waiting and he pointed to a dressing room. Tank sighed and walked in pulling the cloth curtain closed behind him.

There hanging on a hook were a number of formal tuxedos, complete with vests and frilly shirts.

Lula settled herself in a chair, mentally licking her lips in anticipation. This should be good.

The curtain opened and Tank stepped out.

"I look like a damn penguin," he muttered.

The salesman swallowed nervously and then squaring his shoulders he got to work. He had Tank turn around to face the mirror and put his hands on his shoulders checking for how tight the material was on the jacket. He gulped feeling the muscles and grimaced at the reflection of the icy glare on Tanks' face.

"I can see that this particular jacket is all wrong for you. Your shoulders are hunched as if it's too tight. The pants look OK at first glance and with a couple of alterations, I think we have a winner there.

He reached in the fitting room and grabbed a different jacket and vest.

"Try this one on and see if you feel more comfortable. I think it will fit you a bit better."

Tank shed the jacket and vest and headed back in. The salesman watched as he closed the curtain again and looked at Lula.

"I've seen nervous grooms-to-be handling a shopping trip better than this. This must be some very special occasion to get him to come here."

Lula smiled. "I persuaded that fine man very, very well. At the same time, the occasion is something that is near and dear to his heart."

Tank pushed the curtain aside and once again walked out. The salesman nodded his head and asked him to stand in front of the mirror, once again brushing his hands over Tank's shoulders.

"See, this jacket fits you so much better. You are not hunching your shoulders since you have shoulder room. The length needs to be altered a bit and a couple of back panels also need a bit of alteration. Could you remove the jacket so we can see the vest?"

Tank shrugged out of the jacket and stood looking in the mirror, with the vest over the dress shirt and pants. Except for the long pants, the outfit fit him like a glove.

"I haven't seen that in some time. Usually something needs altering in such an accessory, but this is perfect."

He motioned for Tank to put the jacket back on and picked up a pincushion and started to pin here and there, then squatted down to pin up the pant legs.

He stood up and looked at his handiwork, changing a pin here and there.

"This should take about a week. I'll send this to the tailors and we can give you a call when it's finished."

Tank shuffled carefully back into the dressing cubicle and closed the curtain. He swore softly as he got stuck by a pin or two, changing back into his RangeMan uniform.

He emerged with the clothes in one hand and carefully handed them to the man.

They walked to the counter and Tank gave him his cell number. There was no way he was giving the main RangeMan number for this. The nosy noses would have that broadcast all over the building within the hour if they found out he was being measured for a monkey suit and he could well imagine the bets as to the reason.

After paying for the suit, he walked out of the store with Lula beside him. He was holding the bag with a shirt and the tie inside. She had been strangely quiet during the whole procedure and he hadn't really been aware that she had been licking her lips looking at the handsome man trying on the suit. Talk about not being aware of your surroundings!

He looked at his watch and then at her.

"I have to get back, but what are your plans for tonight?"

Lula shrugged her shoulders and sighed.

"I ain't got nothing that's very interesting, Tankie. I thought I'd just stay in and watch a movie or something. If you haven't got plans, we can make some popcorn and watch it together?"

He nodded his head. Tonight his schedule was clear. Hmm, popcorn and movies. Maybe they might even finish the movie tonight!

He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and strode away. Santos was on surveillance soon and he needed to get back.

Tank walked to his truck.

"Bloody hell."

He pulled his phone out and called Al.

"I have a flat tire and it looks deliberate."

He grumbled.

"Yeah, there's a screwdriver sticking into the sidewall, Al. Seems pretty deliberate to me."

He nodded.

"Yeah, I'll wait."

He put away the phone. No way was he calling for a pick-up. The truck was right in front of a Big and Tall Clothing store. Too many possible questions and he was in no mood to elaborate.

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger called the Core Team into his office.

He didn't mince words.

"It's been days since we've been working on this and we are no closer to finding out who's behind this?"

The men shrugged. They'd been chasing any tidbit of information they could. The men were restless and now Hector had disappeared. He'd been ordered to attend the meeting, but, well, Hector sometimes marched to his own beat.

Maybe he was onto something.

Tank looked at Ranger.

"I don't know about you, but while I was only slightly riled before, this is starting to grate on my last nerve. I don't like surprises anymore Ranger. We need to find this perv and soon."

He got up and stomped out the door, not even waiting to be dismissed.

The others looked at the closed door and then back at Ranger. Tank was usually so damn calm in the face of storms, but what was bothering him was bothering them too, but they appeared to be handling it better.

Tank had taken himself out of the market a number of years ago, saying that he was getting too old to run around playing silly bugger any more. He had stated a number of times that he was now content to sit in his office and enjoy life before life passed him by.

Ranger nodded his head and Les and Bobby stood up and walked out.

He made a note to talk to his friend when this was over.

~~~o0o~~~

Ron McDougall looked at the quote that had been faxed over. He liked how much detail there had been added and how RangeMan had incorporated all his concerns and unique requirements into the package.

He contacted J.J. and they talked about how efficient RangeMan seemed to be. He also passed on Ranger's remark about J.J. wanting the best of the best and they both chuckled over how RangeMan was going to attempt to get out of paying for the bill.

Ron asked. "Did you really send them a bill? Wasn't it your fault that the rod broke?"

J.J. laughed. "Ranger and Tank have never been called gullible. I like to keep them honest and on their toes."

Ron sighed. He anticipated more chapters to this before it was settled.

J.J. spoke, changing the subject. "You will not be disappointed signing the contract and they are worth every penny you will be spending."

Ron hung up after agreeing to lunch later that week. He wanted to meet J.J.'s new friend. She too was a lawyer and while his caregiver, Lawrence would roll his eyes at the shop talk that was sure to happen, he would participate as actively as if he was an articled lawyer himself.

Ron signed the contract and buzzed for Angela to send it back. She would make arrangements for a good time for the installation while he was out of the office.

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby sat in his office and twirled the pen in his fingers thinking. He had just cleaned up the infirmary after Woody had been treated for a jagged knife wound on his arm. He and his girlfriend had gotten into an argument and she had resorted to trying to stab him with the knife. She was now under arrest and charged with assault and needless to say, it appeared that their relationship had slipped to certainly a more precarious level.

Woody would be moving back to the open apartment and some of the guys who were off shift had offered to help pack up and move him out. The apartment was in Natalie's name anyway and she could decide what she wanted to do. Right now, she had other difficulties and time would tell how messy this break-up would go.

While Bobby didn't feel the need for speed in getting his own place, he was restless. Maybe instead of an apartment in RangeMan, he should just look at one close to the building itself. Maybe getting out of the building would be the best thing and give him the opportunity to get used to living on his own without Lester butting in wanting to know what was always going on.

Bobby sat there digesting his feelings. He hadn't really noticed when he had started to question sharing an apartment with Santos. He put it down to just habit and feeling comfortable. He and Les had shared for a long time. When they took on a mission they shared. When they visited family and friends, they shared. When they went on holidays together they shared a suite with multiple bedrooms. It felt like a comfortable blanket to wrap yourself in when you were tired. But lately, feeling comfortable had lost its appeal.

Yeah, it was time.

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger sat at his desk looking over the different camera images on his computer screen. He was looking at the faces and the action and interaction of the men in the main office. He noticed that most of them were either typing, writing, or on the phone. There appeared to be a work-man-like atmosphere in the office, and no stressed mannerisms. He looked at each face carefully, wondering who would want to do something to their fellow employee, or him.

He paused at the picture of his Babe, twirling her chair around and around. She was obviously in her zone and was using her unique sleuthing skills trying to help ferret out who might be behind it all.

He watched her stop suddenly, type something and watched as whatever she was questioning obviously coming back. Her forehead wrinkled as she read, a pen jammed into her mouth and no doubt chewing the end of it.

She leaned back in her chair and spun again. She had worn out three chairs in the time she had started working at RangeMan so many years ago. The fact that after so many repeated revolutions, they would begin to squeak, driving the rest of the men to frustration. Nothing had been said, but Luis would quietly change out one chair for a new one.

She stopped once again, and typed something into her computer. This time, she typed some more and then began to print her results. Next she took the papers from the printer tray and grabbing her highlighter, a florescent pink today, she began to stroke through passages or sentences.

Back to spinning around again, she continued to think, this time with the sheaf of papers in her hand.

Ranger sighed and moved to another screen.

He checked the garage. Nobody was there and there were a number of spaces free with vehicles out on surveillance, or errands.

Next he checked the gun range, noting that Ram was testing for the quarterly qualifications so necessary for his men to stay employed.

Ram looked relaxed which meant that he was not having any issues with the scores.

Next, Ranger checked the fourth floor hallway. At this time, his men would be preparing to go on shift and the hallways would be occupied with last minute movement.

He noticed Bobby and Les looking at some papers and there was some finger pointing at the pages, and then a shake of heads.

Obviously Bobby was still pursuing a change of living accommodations and Ranger was happy to see that Les was taking an active part as a sounding board. He had been concerned that Les would become despondent that his best friend wanted to move and had mentally noted to watch him. After all, he was family and family looked after family.

Seeing nothing, he turned off his computer and set to work on the files piled on his desk. He hated paperwork and would have unloaded more onto Tank but his desk was piled just as high. He longed to get out and do something physical. That's why he had barely hesitated when looking at going in the wind, as his Babe called it. He loved the action, and the danger, and the excitement. Office work was boring, and tedious, and well, he was a man of action.

Ranger shrugged. Maybe when it calmed down, he'd take his Babe and go away. Tank could be in charge for awhile and then he would return the favor and he and Lula could go away. Maybe by then things might change and something might come up that he could push the paperwork onto someone else, maybe Les. Yeah, that might be a good idea. Make Les so busy he wouldn't miss Bobby moving out.

Ranger shook his head. Who was he kidding? If Les was in charge for any length of time, there would be RangeMan parties with dancing girls on Friday nights down in the conference room.

He looked at the clock. Only an hour had passed since he had come down from seven and he was restless. The paperwork was being handled but it was time for a break. The phone had rang so many times with questions, or queries, or hand-holding clients that he was ready to throw the paperweight holding down more papers against the wall.

Ranger stood up.

He needed to move.

Maybe he could sneak a time in the gun range and get his qualifying round over with.

He also wanted to touch base with Ram about the miracle shot that had just been announced on the news.

Once again, it was a Canadian sniper who had done the impossible and had broken the record for the longest kill shot taken in history. Word was just coming out that he had taken out his target from a distance of 2.1 miles away or 3.54 kilometers. The bullet had taken 4 seconds to hit its target.

Ram would be impressed as would any other sniper. Maybe he even knew the man. This was a very select group of individuals who usually kept their accomplishments secret from the outside world.

Ranger acknowledged the unidentified soldier by raising the bottle of water in his hand in tribute. If he knew who he was, he would offer him a job when he was finished his tour.

 _A/N – announced on June 22, 2017 by the BBC News in Great Britain, and The Globe and Mail in Canada._

 _Myrna_


	7. Chapter 7

_Thanks for reading and reviewing. All mistakes are mine._

Chapter 7

Ranger had an enormous mound of paperwork sitting on his desk. This was year-end time and there were so many things to check. He thanked his lucky stars that he had Rodriquez. Both he and Tank were run off their feet with the normal workings of day to day operations on such a large operation, but year-end made everything even busier.

Rodriquez had been busy downstairs. He was a money man now and had exchanged search requests for finance.

He had approached Ranger to request Stephanie be assigned to him exclusively as he appreciated her eye to detail, but that request had been denied. She was needed too much in the main office to be transferred and he had been forced to find another victim to dump all his questions and requests on.

Thomas Fenwick had transferred from the Boston office and was proving to be as tenacious as Stephanie when it came to finance and Rodriquez had thanked his god daily that he was so willing and able.

Speak of the devil and Tom appeared at his door with another handful of papers for his in-box.

There was another colorful post-it-note on one of the files and Rodriquez pulled it onto his blotter to peruse the new information.

Tom was questioning why so much fuel was being used by one particular truck and had a printout of the usage, the mileage and the vehicle timesheet for the past month.

Rodriquez looked at the information and nodded his head. With a fleet so large, it was difficult to keep track of every vehicle expense and he once again marvelled at how he had latched onto this one vehicle and its excessive use of fuel.

He made a note for him to call Al to book a maintenance check-up on the truck in question and put a note on the file to have that vehicle sent over. He was no mechanic but at first glance there did seem to be more fill-ups than usual.

He looked at the file again. There also appeared to be excessive mileage on this vehicle and he turned to his computer. Each vehicle was equipped with a GPS and he pressed the icon to track the vehicle's routes.

He looked at the screen. Somehow the tracking had been turned on and off for certain portions of a day. His pen poised, Rodriguez was about to make another note that Al should check for a faulty GPS monitor. On second thought, he picked up his phone and placed a call to Tank. He might be able to garner some information that might unlock the issue.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie sat down and looked at her desk. She was sure that she had left it a different way when she had left her desk. Ram had called and had an opening on his qualifying timesheet for a pistol lesson, but returning to her cubicle, things were just a little 'off'. She unlocked her desk with her key, keeping her hands away from the pull handle, just in case. She was using the bottom of her shirt to open the drawer. Peeking in, she noted that the files she had placed on the left side of the drawer were now pushed against the right side of the drawer. Leaving it open, she pulled her phone out from her back pocket and called Ranger.

"Yo", came over the line.

She whispered into the phone. "Ranger, I think someone has been in my desk and has moved around the drawer I kept 'that stuff' in."

Ranger swore softly. "Don't move Babe, I'll be right there."

Ranger hung up in her ear. She could hear his door open and he materialized at her cubicle almost before she could even think about accidentaly getting up.

She was about to stand up but he put his hand on her shoulder. He looked toward the stairway and Stephanie was surprised to see Cal walk out. He had a small, yellow unit in his hand, which he handed to Ranger to hold for a moment. He stooped down and pulled out a tiny flashlight, peeking under her chair and around it, checking carefully. He then took the little device back and turned it on, passing it slowly over the underside of the chair.

He looked at Ranger and shook his head.

Ranger motioned for Stephanie to stand up and gently moved her behind him to stand by the cubicle nearby.

By now, Tank was also standing near, watching the goings on. A small ring of men were also openly staring at the action and all work seemed to have ground to a halt.

Ranger looked on as Hal brought over a fingerprinting kit, beginning to dust here and there. He lifted up a print here and there, working carefully. He growled when he spied what looked like a partial print on the inside of the drawer.

"I will process this, but I'm not sure I will get enough for a confirmation, Ranger."

He strode away, the fingerprint embossed on a special sheet.

Hector was now in the room and walked over to the monitoring station and began to bring up the feed of the main office camera. He looked at the feed, then pressed a button, then played it again.

"The camera has been adjusted and isn't recording this area now."

Ranger looked around, his blank face slamming into place. Motioning his Babe, he scooped up the files in the drawer and placing his hand on the small of her back, he guided her to his office, closing the door behind them.

The men looked at each other, then back at her desk. Ranger emerged once again and gathered up Stephanie's Ipod and jacket, returning once again to his office.

The door closed.

The men drifted back to their cubicles, whispering to each other softly. Unfortunately, it didn't take a degree to realize that someone from within was targeting Stephanie. Their eyes hardened and they looked around.

Luis came onto the floor and headed to Rangers' office. He emerged not two minutes later and walked down the hallway to a room that until now had held extra computers, desks, monitors and filing cabinets. He proceeded to begin to move material out of the room and into the hall, stopping only to head to the elevator and return shortly with a hand-truck.

Each time he left the floor with more equipment, he carefully locked the door. Less than an hour later, the hallway was empty once again of furniture and he was knocking at Ranger's door. Upon hearing the command to enter, he slid inside and closed the door behind him.

Luis emerged and headed for the elevator once again and Hector emerged from the stairwell with a number of electronic devices in his hand. Pulling out a ladder from the tiny broom closet near the elevator, he climbed up and began to adjust a number of cameras.

He pressed a few buttons from a remote and stepped back.

All told, it had taken just a few hours and now there was another office on the floor.

Stephanie sat in the guest chair that Ranger had guided her to and could only gulp.

She had been targeted by someone and it appeared that she needed to be more aware of her surroundings in a place that up until now had felt incredibly safe.

~~~o0o~~~

I was in a hurry and got careless. My life could be in danger, but my revenge will be sweet if I can pull this off.

~~~o0o~~~

I just spoke to that asshole and I'm not helping him anymore. If he needs a lookout he can look somewhere else.

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger and Stephanie were heading out to pick up his brand new truck. Tank had dropped them off at Al's place and he was just polishing it as they arrived.

Ranger walked around it looking at the finished project. It had the usual security box for his weapon, and a floor bolt in the back seating area for restraining anyone too stupid to keep away from Ranger. There was an updated security system, and alarms for everything from flat tires, to explosives. The windows were bulletproof and the doors were reinforced to withstand a collision.

Ranger shook Al's hand and opening the passenger door, he handed Stephanie inside. He leaned over and gave her a soft kiss then closing the door he walked around to the driver's side.

She looked at the instrument cluster and could only shake her head.

If this were an airplane or a tank, she could see it, but heck, this was a vehicle that drove on the ordinary streets of Trenton.

Her stomach rumbled and she grimaced.

Ranger looked at her.

"I could handle Shorty's for lunch, Babe."

Stephanie smiled. She loved Shorty. He made the best pizza in town, although she would never say that to Pino. He still had the inside track on meatball subs.

Lunch was noisy as a number of RangeMen were in the restaurant. They had moved into the back room and more and more RangeMen began to arrive. It was turning into an impromptu party.

Time to leave and the room emptied.

Once again Ranger opened the door and Stephanie practically jumped up into the cab. Ranger headed around and opened his door, sliding in.

He was about to put the key into the ignition and stopped.

Ranger spoke. "Babe, do as I say. Don't move, don't touch anything, and don't attempt to open your door."

He looked around.

No RangeMan vehicles were still in the lot and he kept his hands off the wheel.

A passerby walked close and Ranger waved his arms. He walked over and began to touch the door as if to open it. Ranger waved his hands, shaking his head no and the man backed off.

The man yelled, "What?"

Ranger shouted back.

"Could you go into the restaurant and get them to call RangeMan. Shorty or one of his employees will have the number. Tell them that there is a bomb under my truck."

The man paled and slowly backed away.

They watched as the man entered the building then came back out and gave a thumbs up. He stayed near the entrance way and waited.

Scant minutes later, a number of black SUV's raced into the lot across the street and stopped. Men poured out of the trucks and blocked the entrance way into the parking lot. Two more headed into the restaurant to block anyone trying to leave.

Cal jumped out of his vehicle with a bag in his hand. He divested himself of his phone and weapons. Handing everything, including what was in his pockets to Zeke he walked through the men to the truck, then circled around it looking for anything suspicious. Nodding to Ranger he then moved closer.

Stephanie noticed that he wasn't wearing any kind of a protective suit and she looked at Ranger for an explanation.

"Babe, Cal never uses one. He says he can't concentrate on all the little things if he has to deal with a bulky and noisy suit."

Stephanie silently nodded, but she crossed her fingers. Yeah, if it did explode, not only would Ranger and Stephanie probably not survive, neither would Cal.

He got down on his hands and knees, then onto his stomach and inched his way under the truck, all the while shining a tiny flashlight under the undercarriage. He backed up and headed around to the other side and once again dropped to his hands and knees and then onto his stomach. Cal then crawled very slowly under the truck. The men standing guard saw him shift so that he was now on his back under the truck.

Minutes passed and Cal remained motionless. Stephanie was getting ready to move around and shift, but one glance from Ranger and she stilled herself. His look said, 'be calm, very calm, Babe'.

He carefully inched his way out, then once he was clear, he got to his knees then onto his feet. There was something in his hand with wires hanging down.

Cal put the box into a bulky-looking drum that Zeke had brought over with a hand truck. He then carefully slid the cover over it all and locked it down.

Cal nodded and Ranger opened his door and stepped out then walked around and opened Stephanie's door. He assisted her to the ground where she stood on rubbery legs as she listened.

"Crude but effective, Ranger. Good thing you didn't use a phone to call or try to get out. It was set to explode with the ignition being turned on or you exiting the vehicle."

Ranger was angry. Someone was starting to ramp up their assault and so far no true clues.

"Does it look like it would be activated by a cellphone like the last one, or independent of anything other than the truck moving?"

Cal shrugged.

"As I said, very crude, Ranger. If I had to guess, it looked like someone put it together using the internet for information."

Ranger moved away.

"I know it's slim, but do what you can to figure it out."

Ranger escorted Stephanie to the back of a vehicle with Tank inside.

"Get Al to tow it and get us back to RangeMan."

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger stepped outside his office and walked down to Stephanie's new work space. She was hard at work, or at least she appeared to be.

She was twirling her chair around and around, with a highlighter in her hand and her Ipod buds in her ears. The noise escaping the earbuds she would call pure rock, but to him it resembled more like the sounds of a screeching cat being swung around by its tail.

She didn't see him as he stood there. All of a sudden she put her hand onto the edge of the desk and stopped her forward movement. Her feet hit the carpet and she sort of breathed deeply and at the same time, grunted. It was not the most ladylike mannerism in her repertoire but he knew from seeing this many times that she had discovered something that had piqued her interest.

Her face was flushed and she jumped in surprise to see me there. Her face reddened and she mumbled, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, need to be more aware of my surroundings."

Ranger walked into the room and closed the door. All conversations were now being held behind closed doors in case of accidentaly being overheard.

"Babe. You have to be more careful. I could have come in with a gun and you'd be dead."

He sat down in the chair in front of her desk.

She laughed. "You always come in with a gun. You probably have at least two knives on you, or at least that's how many I saw on the dresser this morning."

Ranger jumped to his feet and stalked to her chair. He scooped her up, sitting down and positioning her on his lap.

"Babe."

He breathed in the scent of her shampoo and nuzzled her neck. He took her ear between his teeth and gently bit it, feeling her begin to tense. One good thing about her new office was the extra sound-proofing he had had Luis install, just in case her music became too loud, he tried to reason with Luis. To his chagrin, Luis had smirked (just a little).

The door was locked and his hands began to move toward the shirt tucked into her cargoes. He slowly, ever so slowly pulled out one tail, then the other, never moving too fast, but more in a seductive manner, his intentions clear.

She looked to the door then looked up at his face. He had that 'look'. They were going to christen the room in broad daylight with a floor full of men just outside?

He continued his onslaught, one hand cupping her right breast as he massaged her nipple. A faint moan came from her lips.

She looked at him as her own hand slid to the hard ridge near his zipper.

She managed to get to the belt and the button and was reaching for the zipper when there was a knock on the door. In fact, there were three quick knocks.

Ranger swore under his breath and withdrew his hand from under her shirt. He looked at her with her just thoroughly been kissed look on her face and barked.

"What?"

Les spoke through the door. "Hector has something that he thinks we should hear."

Ranger swore under his breath but spoke.

"Meeting down in Hector's lab in ten minutes. Core team only."

Les tried to choke out the words without grinning. "If you need more time….."

Ranger growled. "Santos,…."

Stephanie spoke as she stood up. "Whoa, that was close." She glared at Ranger as she looked down. Her shirt was partially unbuttoned and her belt and button on her cargoes were undone. She could almost feel how puffy her lips were. And to top it off, she could feel whisker burn down the side of her neck.

Stephanie pointed to the pile of pages that she had printed off.

"Here's all the information on the guys, Ranger. If you want to take them and look them over, well then I guess that leaves only the current employees."

She added.

"I checked the yellow marked names and other than some questions, I didn't get a feeling of anything dangerous with them. At the same time, some of your employees were a bit on the strange side, Ranger, but nothing popped out that might alert me to something amiss. I checked and they are all where they are living and nobody has taken a trip anywhere in the recent past."

Ranger nodded his head. He too had mentally gone over the yellow group – as he liked to think of them- with the same result. Unfortunately that left the main group working at the present time in the building.

She looked uncomfortable with her next comment.

"I'm not looking forward to this part. These men are my friends, my co-workers and have always come to bail me out when I've run into problems."

She frowned as she looked at the list. "With all my heart, I really hope it's nobody on this list. At the same time, things are happening in this building that only someone who works here has access to. I'm determined that this be solved soon. Nobody likes to walk around on egg-shells questioning whether the man at his back is not to be trusted. "

Ranger nodded his head. "I know how you feel, Babe. I have been on missions with a good portion of these men and to think that someone in this group has turned on me makes me not just angry but anxious to know what has changed that they want to target me, and you, and RangeMan."

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby received a call on his cell about the meeting. Unfortunately this meant that he would have to delay his own appointment until later.

Bobby put the phone to his ear as he made his call. "I have something that just came up, but can I call back and arrange to view the building later today?"

Dillon smiled. The main realtor had left the building for the day and that left him to do a showing. He knew that RangeMan moved to a different beat than most companies. Of course he would stand by for his call. It was built into his contract that he be a secondary contact as the Property Manager anyway. He had been taking some courses for his realtor license and this would be a good way to practise.

"Sure, I'll wait for your call."

He stopped then spoke again. "Say hi to Stephanie for me. Can you pass on that we still have a date for a Rangers game on TV. She can bring the snacks and I'll provide the beer."

Bobby nodded and walked toward the door. He liked what he saw at first glance from the pictures that the realtor had emailed. The apartment block was being condo'd and he had leaped at the chance to get into a new place. If he moved fast enough he could be one of the first to order whatever flooring and wall colors and choose his new appliances.

As he walked out of his office, he noticed one of the men loitering on the floor. He promised himself to think about it when he had a moment.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie phoned Randy.

"I trusted you, you little shit, and you do this to me? I've a mind to let Hector visit. If I tell him about you giving me a first-draft of a new program to iron out your bugs, he's not going to be happy."

She took a breath and her voice grew even angrier.

"He has no time right now to deal with this and if I mention what you did, well, there is no hole small enough for you to hide."

Randy heard the click in his ear. He put his cellphone down on his desk and frowned. Was he the guy who had visited with Stephanie that one time? Randy frowned and gulped. That scary man had played with a knife the whole time. It had looked really sharp. And, why did he have those strange tattoos under his eye?

The front desk phoned her less than an hour later. A package with her name on it had just arrived. It had been checked and deemed to be safe.

There was a note in the package.

"Sorry, and please don't let him kill me!"

~~~o0o~~~

Tank received a call from Lula just as he let himself into Hectors' room. Unfortunately he couldn't answer right now and let it go to voicemail. He'd call her later. Lunch would have to be delayed.


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks for reading and reviewing. All mistakes are mine and I take full responibility for them. (I couldn't find anyone willing to offload them onto!)_

Chapter 8

Hector stood ready when the four men walked in. He had checked a number of things before they arrived and had a laptop turned to him on the desk as he motioned for them to come closer.

Everyone spoke in Spanish.

"I was able to get only a general direction of the phone call and while it was not from our building it was only a block away. It was a burned phone and had been programmed to block access. Anybody from here could have easily travelled that distance after our Stephanie left.

I pulled the video of the garage and tabulated all the vehicles leaving from a half hour before our Chica left. There are four vehicles in question."

He pulled up the video and ran it in quick time. They were all general use vehicles in the fleet. Two of the vehicles were headed out on surveillance and arrived in an expected time frame, one was being sent out for maintenance and one was being used on personal time."

He looked down at his notes.

"I checked the logs on the cellphones. No calls were either incoming or outgoing during that time and I have printed off the names of the six men who were in the vehicles."

He handed the men a printed sheet and they quickly looked at the names.

Hector wasn't finished.

He picked up some yellow post-it notes from his desk and held them in his hand.

"I went back to the scenes where your car was keyed, the window was smashed and the tire was punctured. I was able to find these discarded very near."

Hector fanned the tiny notes and everyone could plainly see the printing on the sheet. One said key, one said bat and one said tire.

Hector spoke again. "Unfortunately this material is widely used. We use it ourselves in the offices here."

He looked at Ranger. "I am tracking down a lead on these but until I can confirm my sources, I will not comment further on this matter."

Well, at least it was a start.

Hector wasn't finished.

"I checked a rumor around a school and a group of kids were bragging that they egged our vehicles. They admitted it to their mothers after some direction from me and I just received a call from each boy taking responsibility for their actions. They have agreed to spend a Saturday after we calm down here washing whatever trucks we line up for them. The lot next door can be used and we will provide the washing materials."

He smiled and everyone literally took a step backward.

"I plan to have a lot of trucks needing a bath."

Bobby looked at him. "I'm surprised that the moms agreed to this. Unfortunately these days some parents refuse to believe that their little darlings would do anything wrong."

Hector smiled grimly. "As it turned out, two of the boys are my nephews and they convinced their friends to have some fun."

The men shook their heads. Hector could be a very tough uncle when he wanted to be. They all mentally grimaced at the scenario having just taken place. Having been in a gang setting, he was trying to keep more of his family from getting into illegal activity. Sure, tossing eggs was innocent enough, but if nipped in the bud, it might keep the boys from drifting into more serious activities later on.

Hector still wasn't finished.

"We had one truck with the fuel issues and the GPS problem. I was able to check with a number of the men about this vehicle in question. I found it interesting that everyone wants to sign it out. It is the first out and the last one signed back in. The men admit that the seats are more comfortable to sit in for long periods of time. I am somewhat shorter than most of the men and don't notice it, but I guess that our taller employees find the lumbar support compliments their physique better."

He looked at Ranger.

"When it comes time to replace the older vehicles in our fleet, it may be worth some thought to check out seat options."

Ranger nodded. He and Tank had just talked about new vehicles with year end almost upon them. They would take that information into account.

Once more he looked down at his notes.

"Al checked that vehicle and says the GPS is cutting in and out. He's ordered a new unit and will have it back on the road when the parts arrive."

He put down the papers on his desk, took out a knife and played with it as he looked at each man.

"If you haven't met the new bounty hunter, he's an interesting character. I ran into him out on the streets and I think that Vinnie and Lee will get their moneys' worth. He's young, brash and doesn't mind getting dirty.'

He looked at Ranger.

"Mind you, he has a bad attude toward gangs and women. That attitude is still strong in some parts of the country and he is very firm in his beliefs. The ladies at the bond office have taken an extremely healthy dislike to him. He treats them like his personal wait staff to do his bidding. I would be concerned to have our Chica argue with this man. She's pretty deadly with that knee and it could put some strained relations in place with RangeMan. It's probably better that she's not part of the bond office anymore. At the same time, he took an instant dislike to me. I guess he didn't like where I stand, either."

The Core Team mulled over the information.

Tank remembered Lula grousing about the new man. He vowed to quiz her a bit more when he saw her next. Had this Jeff guy made snide remarks to her because she was a woman of color?

A number of things were becoming clear.

Ranger spoke. "This series of events just proves that we have been getting complacement about our own vigilance. Here we are protecting others and haven't taken the time to clean up and protect ourselves."

His hand fisted and it looked like he wanted to hit something.

"Unfortunately that leaves the matter of the cut lines, the poison, the electrical and Stephanie's desk being rifled. If we add in the cameras being changed it still points to someone in this building."

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger climbed into one of the standard black trucks. He glanced at Lester sitting in the passenger seat and grimaced. Les had talked non-stop throughout his entire life. He had talked through Mass, and through movie nights at home on Friday nights with the extended family. He had talked through Basic, Rangers and all his missions. The only time he didn't talk was when he was underwater!

Les opened his mouth and Ranger was ready for him.

"One word, even the beginning of a syllable and I will leave you on the side of the road, Santos!

Les grinned. A challenge.

He began to hum softly. Ranger growled as Les continued to hum softly with his eyes closed. His hands moved in the air as if he were counting time.

Ranger recognised the song, 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling'.

Rangers hand gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.

Les smiled to himself.

Just as Ranger took his foot off the gas, Les stopped.

They pulled up behind the surveillance team they were replacing and the other vehicle sped away.

Les began to hum again, this time the song was ,'The Power of Love'.

He looked over in time to see Ranger reaching down to his weapon on his hip and stopped.

Whoa, this was serious.

Les sat very still as Ranger took his hand off his weapon and placed both hands on the wheel. Ranger not able to control himself was something very new. He glanced very carefully to the side and Ranger grimaced.

"Sorry, I'm not myself."

Les nodded. Apology accepted.

Later, much later as they continued to stare at the gate of the large mansion, Ranger spoke.

"I'm having a great deal of difficulty with the fact that someone, or a number of someones in my company are targeting me. I'm trying to figure out if its more aggravating or if there is an alternative motive to it all. Defacing my car, the hit and run, and to an extent, the faulty wall plugs would not be fatal, but the fact that the possibility of a sniper and the poison, is. I'm wondering if it might be more than one person involved."

Les nibbled on his lower lip. He thought about it and responded.

"Besides the fact that these things happened a few days ago, nothing, then Beautifuls' desk was rifled, makes me think that whoever is spearheading this is re-thinking his decision. If I had to guess, I think that there is an outside person and an inside person or even two inside people. Security is tight in our building and unless it is someone like the Core Team, they would need back-up to watch and deflect,"

Les looked at Ranger. "Cuz, I've got your back."

Ranger fist bumped his cousin and they settled in to their surveillance shift. Neither of them spoke out loud, but if brainwaves could register to the naked eye, the air was charged in the vehicle. Each was going over all the possibilities. Almost mentally they were naming names and possible reasons as they sat.

Surprised and a little embarrassed, they both jumped as headlights flashed behind them. Their backup had arrived to relieve them.

Ranger pulled up to a Dunkin' Donuts drive-through. He looked at Les.

"Don't start."

Les grinned. Stephanie had changed his boss in so many tiny ways.

"Can I have a chocolate donut with sprinkles? I missed supper."

Ranger passed a small bag to him.

"Not a word."

~~~o0o~~~

Lula sat by the phone waiting for Tank to call. She had some news and wanted, no, needed to talk to him.

~~~o0o~~~

Tank was sitting in his office. His phone rang and he pulled it out of the holster.

"Talk."

The men's store was on the line.

"Your suit is ready to be picked up Mr. Sherman."

Tank figuratively slapped his forehead. Oh yeah, the suit. And the presentation. It was in three days.

He spoke into the phone.

"I'll be there later to pick it up."

He opened the top drawer and pulled out the card.

It was from the Boys and Girls Club. Lula had convinced him a number of years ago to volunteer his time with the boys and she would also volunteer her time with the girls.

They both had been selected to receive the Boys and Girls Club of New Jersey Man and Woman of the Year award. Tank had NOT wanted to go but instead to stay incognito with his help, but a number of the boys had been asked to put on a self defence demonstration at the banquet to show how much they had learned over the past year. Tank had brought over the boys to RangeMan and they had learned and practiced in the gym. Other members of RangeMan had stepped in and volunteered their time and energy.

Tank had complained that he didn't need a fancy suit to be there, but Lula had been insistent. There would be media there filming the event. What better way to acknowledge the help that RangeMan had provided and also get more adults involved.

Ranger had given him a large cheque as a donation from RangeMan, hence Lula's insistence that he wear a tux.

She had done great things with the young girls, instilling a sense of worth in girls that had had a rough lot in life. Some came from broken families, some had been into drugs, and some just needed a person to hang out with and talk to. Many of the girls she talked to had nobody they could confide in.

Lunch time arrived and Tank headed to his truck. He would pick up the damn suit and hide it away in his apartment while everyone was on shift or asleep. Then, he'd take a spin over to see Lula.

Tank walked into the store and the same salesman was on the floor. He smiled grimly and approached the large man.

"Mr. Sherman, your suit is ready."

He headed into the back and returned with a hanger and a plastic bag protecting the contents. He held it carefully in his hand and shook Tanks' hand before handing over the bagged hanger.

"Thank you for choosing Big N Tall. We hope to see you again for your clothing needs."

Tank nodded.

Walking out of the store, he opened the back door and hung the hanger on the hook. He slammed the door shut and opening the drivers' door, he slid in, sliding his sunglasses down from on top of his bald head.

Tank drove into the garage. He looked around as he climbed out. He pressed the fob scrambling the camera at the elevator, then called for the elevator.

The door opened and he scrambled the elevator camera and unscrambled the garage camera. He wasn't in the mood to explain that bag.

The elevator stopped at four and Tank once again unscrambled the camera and scrambled the 4th floor hallway camera.

He made it almost to his apartment door, when Les came around the corner.

Tank groaned.

No, anybody but Santos!

Les took one look at the bag and approached.

"Hey Tank, what's the special occasion?"

Tank glared at the man.

"None of your damn business."

Les figuratively rubbed his hands together. He loved mysteries and before the day was over, he was determined to find out what the special occasion was for.

Tank's door closed and Les stood smiling. He could run but he couldn't hide. The building wasn't that big.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie was slowly working down the personnel in the main building. Luis and Ella had been easy to cross off. She loved them dearly and had no reason to dispute that they were who they said they were.

Ella was Rangers' aunt, and while she was 'family'; well, family had back-stabbed family for centuries for the most simple of reasons; money. Luis was an honorably medically discharged vet who had served his country well. He made an excellent handyman since his father and his father before him had also been handymen. He had no trade tickets but there was a knowledge that came from years of practise.

Stephanie put aside their files and concentrated on Woody.

He had not served with Ranger on any missions. He had come up on radars as a man who could be a valuable asset when the need arose. He had drifted into the role as an unofficial quartermaster almost by accident. His easy attitude made people relax in his presence and they literally had not felt the need to be aware what was happening behind the scenes later.

The men still talked occasionally of possibly his greatest achievement. With another squad, Woody had made a decommissioned ambulance disappear from right under a commander's nose. The man had been in the process of stripping it down for use as his personal holiday trailer. The simple fact that it had disappeared apparently full of medical supplies under the watchful eyes of a full garrison made it all the more incredible. Word had eventually leaked out that it had shown up in a remote country village and Doctors Without Borders were now using it as a mobile field station.

Stephanie shrugged. There were so many secrets in the building and while this was certainly note-worthy, nothing more had been nor would be said on the matter.

She remembered a chance remark from her dad once. He grumbled that the good-old U. S. of A had scraped the bottom of the barrel when Vinnie had been drafted to serve in the Army way back. Vinnie had been 'odd' from an early age and Frank objected strenuously whenever he could that he was not a relative. He had heard that Vincent Plum was one of 'those' kind of soldiers, never the official designation of his position but that underlying whisper that he could 'procure anything for a price'.

Vinnie had taken on the role but his 'finds' were more of a slightly illicit variety. Who else could make wine appear for an illegal party with girls. Porn magazines could always be bought and the odd porn movie made an appearance until it was destroyed. Lingerie was easy to procure if you knew the right people. Christmas was coming with no turkey on the menu?, but somehow, a company received two cases of ducks just before the day itself.

Stephanie wondered if his apparent interest in waterfowl might have originated from that occasion.

~~~o0o~~~

"WTH is going on here. I was hired to just keep an eye out but I had nothing to do with the sniping or the poison. I wish I had never said I would agree to this. These guys are too close, and they are on the alert now."

~~~o0o~~~

It was almost as if someone had flipped a switch and all strange activity had stopped. No phone calls, no attempts to injure, no nothing. Had the threat diminished or were they changing their focus?

Maybe they had realized their mistake and had fallen back to regroup.

Ranger wanted to believe that whoever had been doing it was now realizing the error of their ways. After all, and while he was proud of the fact, but not bragging, he was the best of the best. Yes, time was starting to creep up on him, but in the governments' eyes, he was still available for that one last mission, one that only he could do, one that had his name, and only his name on it.

~~~o0o~~~

She questioned why she had not thought about it sooner, but well, familiar things were a comfort to her and being out in the main room with all its goings-on was both comforting and nerve wracking. Especially with the task in front of her.

Stephanie set to work once again, looking over the paperwork and trying to find any needle that might draw her in a specific direction.

On and on, questions were raised but so far, no glimmer of a hint of a suspect came to mind.

Her eyes hurt and her ass was falling asleep in her chair. She needed to move. She stood up and shook out her cargoes over her boots and strode to the door. Taking her key fob out of her cargo pants pocket, she made sure the door was locked.

Unfortunately, she was the farthest possible distance away from the break room and found herself walking down the hallway lamenting her current lot in life.

Stephanie stepped into the break room and wandered over to the cooler with sandwiches and fruit placed tastefully on the racks. She stood perusing her choices and finally opening the door, she chose a tuna on rye and a banana. Since she had had only one cup of coffee for breakfast she stopped and poured herself a cup.

Balancing it all on a red carrying tray, she headed out the door, noting that Tank was just pushing the door to the stairway and heading off the floor. He was still grimacing from the rib injury as he pushed on the handle.

Heading back to her room she balanced the tray in one hand and her key fob in another. She walked through the doorway and pushed the door shut with one heel of her boot and set her tray down on the corner of the desk, getting ready to plop into the guest chair.

Something made her look to her desk and she noted that some papers had been moved. She walked around the desk and looked. At first glance she couldn't see anything out of place, but the fact that one of the tiny yellow notes Hector had lent her was now under a pen drew her attention back to that part of the desk.

Food forgotten she walked around to sit down at her desk once again, letting her eyes drift over the paperwork.

Something was missing, but what?

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger got a phone call as he was working at his desk. It was a number that he had never heard of, but it was local.

"Manoso."

The voice on the other line spoke.

"I just heard something and I think we need to talk."

Ranger thought about it. As this one of those kind of conversations without additional ears needed? Did he need someone to be at his back?

"Motel cafe on Dutch Street in 20."

He hung up and stood, mentally checking his weapons. It might prove to be nothing, or…

Striding out the door, he noticed that Les was in the break room.

Good.

~~~o0o~~~

Tank headed for his office.

He had noticed Josh hanging around Stephanie's office door while she headed for the lunchroom and was following him down the steps. Unfortunately he had exited on four as if heading to his apartment. Tank was beginning to wonder if he might be involved in the goings-on in RangeMan.

It was time to put the pressure on him.

Ella bless her heart, had sewn trackers into a number of the men's uniforms on Tank's orders. He had taken all the men who were relatively new to the branch in Trenton and made the executive decision to watch them.

Yeah, it was an invasion of privacy and he would apologize later but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Quickly bringing up his personal computer program he looked at the tiny dots moving in the building and one just outside moving farther down the road. He had him in his sights and would deal with him in due course.

Tank looked around the office. He had become so used to the environment and the work they specialized in. It was so much better than chewing sand, wiping his hands from cleaning the cordite from his weapon, wondering who would call with his next mission, worrying about what the future held. Lord knew he was well paid, very well paid by RangeMan. While he had been off the market for a number of years, old habits and old memories continued to haunt him.

He liked his over sized, cushy office chair. He liked the feeling of responsibility. He did not like that someone was trying to mess with RangeMan.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie walked down the hallway on two. She needed to see Hector. He had all the answers when it came to anything computer and she wanted to pick his brain.

As she rounded the corner near his door, her boot pushed against something and next thing she knew she was thrown against the wall. She lay slumped on the floor with her ears ringing and her head pounding.

Alternating with a pounding headache she was sure she could hear alarms.

Opening her eyes she stared into Hector leaning over her. She tried to stand up but a firm hand on her shoulder kept her sitting on the floor leaning against the wall.

Bobby came into view running with his bag and slid to a stop in front of her.

Ranger came racing up at the same time.

She shook her head as all three shouted questions at her. Her ears rang and her vision was fuzzy.

She opened her mouth, but her words were not forming properly. It was as if her tongue was swollen and she could taste blood. She tried to push herself up the wall but her body was not responding to her thoughts.

More men arrived and she felt suddenly nauseous. Leaning over, she vomited as dizziness set in.

She noticed a stretcher being lowered and felt hands gently pick her up and place her on it.

She felt herself being lifted off the floor and darkness washed over her.

()()()

'You've Lost That Loving Feeling' re-released by The Righteous Brothers (1965)

'The Power of Love' by Huey Lewis and the News (1985)


	9. Chapter 9

_Thank you for reading and reviewing. Well, the good news is some of the questions will be answered soon, the bad news: I'm not done yet!_

Chapter 9

Tank headed for his office.

He had noticed Josh coming out of Stephanie's office while she was in the lunchroom and was getting ready to follow him down the steps. Tank was beginning to wonder if he might be the employee involved in the goings-on in RangeMan.

He was about to open the stairwell door, when the building shook and alarms began to sound. His cell rang and Luke, who was at the monitoring station was on the line.

"Tank, there's been an explosion on two, by Hectors' room."

Tank swore.

"What the hell happened?"

Luke blurted out. "I'm trying to get the camera angled to tell me what's going on, but it appears to have been knocked around by the blast."

He stopped talking.

Tank growled.

"Where's Ranger? Did you call him?"

Luke was slow to answer but he finally blurted out.

"He told me he was leaving the building. I saw him head down the stairs and then I saw you head to the stairway door, Sir. I thought you two were going out together and if he's driving, you could answer the phone."

Tank wasn't sure if he should call Luke out, but the simple fact that the men had noticed someone accompanying Ranger every time he was going out lately. Should he discipline an employee who was actually thinking?

Tank realized that there was nobody on the line and hung up.

He ran to the control room in time to see Luke pick up the phone again.

"What's happening?"

Les was standing by Luke who was on another line. Woody was at the other monitor but was sneaking glances sideways.

"Hector says that Stephanie's down and injured. He's called for Bobby, and Luke's on the phone with Ranger."

Luke swore.

"Oh, shit, Bobby's requesting an ambulance."

He looked at Tank.

"I've called the ambulance and both Ranger and Bobby are down with Hector and Stephanie. Bobby says she's pretty banged up and they need to transport now."

Tank was running toward the stairwell heading downstairs. He yelled as he hit the door bar.

"I'm heading down to the main lobby and will direct the ambulance. Send a text clearing the men out of the way. Advise me of any further developments."

Les barked, "Sir, yes, Sir."

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger was just opening the door to his truck when there was a booming noise and the sound bounced around in the garage. Alarms began to sound and men who were in the garage began to run to their action stations.

Ranger slammed the door of his truck and hurried to the stairwell, racing up with the men to the main floor reception area.

Rangers' phone rang and Luke was on the line.

"There's been an explosion in the hallway on two by Hectors' door. Bobby is enroute and Hector let me know that Stephanie is down. "

He paused.

"The building has been put on alert and I'm waiting for further instructions, Sir."

Ranger was running back to the stairwell door and yelled into his phone.

"Is there any information on how badly hurt Stephanie is?"

Luke shook his head.

"No word yet, Ranger, but Bobby just called for an ambulance."

~~o0o~~~

Gentle hands lifted the stretcher carrying Stephanie into the air. Bobby walked beside the stretcher as the men quickly made their way to the stairs where Caesar was holding the door open.

Walking carefully down the stairs they emerged onto the main floor and out the stairwell door, held by Curtis. An ambulance was sitting at the front door with the lights flashing.

The men set the stretcher on the gurney and the ambulance attendants buckled her along with the stretcher onto their piece of rolling equipment. They proceeded to put an oxygen mask on her face, and a blood pressure cuff on her arm. They inserted an IV and nodding to the men, they rolled the gurney to the back of the ambulance.

Sliding her in, one attendant jumped in with Ranger following.

Tank was standing back watching the action, but he turned around to watch the faces of the men who had also crowded around the doorway. What he observed was horror, concern and even a couple of tears.

He stood on the sidewalk pondering whether he should also head there, but was considering his options.

There was the hallway to check out to see what had happened. At first glance, it had all the indicators of a grenade having been released.

Robin was standing by the back door of the ambulance and slamming the door, she pounded her fist twice on the door, alerting the driver that they were loaded and ready to roll.

The ambulance pulled away with both lights and siren on and raced down the street. Two vehicles flew out of the RangeMan garage.

Tank had already directed two teams to follow the vehicle all the way to the hospital and provide security on Ranger and Stephanie. Bobby was standing on the sidewalk, waving for one of the vehicles to pick him up. The last one slid to a stop in front of the building and Bobby hopped in the back seat. They took off again with a screech of tires.

Tank received a call on his cell.

"Talk".

Ranger barked.

"Other than the men following and those on patrol, nobody leaves the building. Total lock-down until I return."

Tank nodded.

"Copy that."

He pressed one button ending the call, then another to phone out.

In Spanish, he barked, "Lock down the building. Nobody leaves."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Robin walk toward him.

She had her notebook open and pen poised.

"You know the drill, Tank. What the hell happened to Stephanie?"

Tank sighed. How much to tell her?

He shrugged.

"We're processing it ourselves right now and I will let you know what we find. It appears that she set off a stun grenade."

Robin looked at Tank. A stun grenade? Stephanie was known to be accident-prone, but a stun grenade? Was there something going on behind those doors that would never leave the building? Since it was Stephanie who was hurt, she knew that Ranger would be relentless in his pursuit of the truth.

Robin muttered almost to herself, but Tank's hearing had always been exceptional.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I suppose it will be kept in-house and nothing will ever be mentioned outside your very secure walls, either."

Tank stood like the rock he could be and nothing else was said.

Robin turned around to leave, but looked back over her shoulder.

"Tell Stephanie, get-well soon wishes."

She and her partner hurried to their patrol car and sped away, heading in the same directions as the ambulance.

Tank looked at Les standing by.

"Check the weapons room to see if any ordnance has been removed. Get Cal to check the hallway for any indication of something else."

Les looked at Tank. "Was it Hector that was being targeted and Beautiful stepped into it? To me, it looks like someone was trying to take Hector out of the game, either mortally or incapacitated for some time."

Tank shook his head. These were questions that needed to be answered, and soon.

~~~o0o~~~

Jeremy O'Day looked at his training partner.

"You let them get away with that?" he questioned as they walked away.

Robin shrugged. How to tell her trainee that RangeMan marched to a different beat, but got the job done, and usually only a little in the gray area of legal.

"Sometimes I think that what happens in that building will always stay in the building, but RangeMan does let us in on their secrets enough that we can't really call them on it with search warrants and what-not."

She looked back at the building.

Yeah, there were so many secrets in that building and as her partner was questioning the validity of their actions, so did Robin.

"Let's go. RangeMan will let us know what they are willing to divulge later. Right now, it looks like Stephanie is their main concern and we won't know what happened until they are ready to advise us."

Robin slid into the passenger side of the patrol car and called in that they were heading to the hospital.

~~~o0o~~~

Josh raced down the street zigging this way and that. He had snuck out the man door in the garage and was making his escape. He had his go-bag with him with a fake passport, and money. He'd been well paid to cause the disturbances, but lamented that the final payment would not be arriving since he had failed to complete his mission.

He was careful to take a circulatory path to the car parked in a driveway just a few blocks from the RangeMan office building. He had paid a significant amount in cash to have it parked there. It was a nondescript Nissan Sentra, dirty enough that it didn't attract attention, but clean enough that it didn't look abandoned.

He was feeling pretty good about himself. Nobody had come even close to identifying him as the person disrupting the normal workings at RangeMan Incorporated.

He had planned carefully each move, never rushing, but making it all seem so innocent at the same time. Who would have guessed that the electrical had been tampered with? He had been on shift and there was a period of about an hour when the main power was re-routed for the electricians to finish tying in the new plug-ins. While they were down in the electrical room, he had snuck in and had changed some of the wiring.

He grimaced. The cut lines on the vehicle was just bad timing that Ranger had sent Tank to lead the convoy. He had been in the third vehicle and had mentally groaned that Tank had come out relatively unscathed, saving the pedestrians. Losing Tank would have been icing on the cake. Tank hated him and had already written him up for a number of minor offences. He'd been hoping for a transfer to a new branch, and more responsibility.

He'd been in the room when there was a call for more men for the take-down of Robin Bellamy. He'd used his own rifle but there was no clear shot from his vantage point and he had melted away.

Everyone in the room had heard that Ranger needed to change his range time and it was a quick trip in to disable the weapon. He liked working with armaments.

The poisoning, well, he had some inside knowledge of that too. His best friend had been on that mission and was one of the casualties. He totally blamed Ranger for that. Why had he come home and his best friend hadn't? At the funeral he'd been one of the pallbearers and had lifted the casket realizing it was empty.

In fact, he blamed Ranger for a lot of things.

He hopped in his vehicle and turned the key.

An explosion ripped through the car and it started to burn. Car and business alarms were blaring into the afternoon air. The car beside it was showered with pieces of the car on fire and the heat was intense.

Sirens were heard, almost as if there were units in the area.

Two black and whites raced to the scene, blocking traffic in both directions. A fire engine pulled up and men poured out of the truck, pulling hoses from the racks on the back and attaching them to the fire hydrant at the corner.

RangeMan had been alerted by sensors of the blast and while it was still two blocks away, they were on alert. Who knew when an attack of some kind could come with a diversion from another direction? It had been known to happen in combat.

There were just too many things happening all at once.

~~~o0o~~~

Well, that went well! My mole has been eliminated. I paid good money for a successful contract and the funds are already on their way.

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger's phone rang. Reaching down he pulled it from its holster on his hip, and spoke.

"Report."

Maurice was on the other end of the phone.

"There's been an explosion two blocks down the road. Sounds like a car bomb. Fire and police are at the scene. RangeMan is secure in case it's a diversionary action."

Ranger growled as he paced back and forth in Stephanies' room.

"Is the building still on lock-down and have all personnel been accounted for?"

Maurice hesitated.

"Josh Danielson is not. It looks like he slipped out the garage door. Video is on your computer."

Ranger grunted.

"Find him."

He hung up and wondered why Tank hadn't looked after the situation. Where was he to take this call? Didn't the men know that he was at the hospital?

~~~o0o~~~

Les phoned Tank.

"We've done a personnel check and everyone is accounted for except Josh Danielson. We checked his room since he didn't respond to rollcall."

Tank brought up his trackers. Yup, one was moving away from the building and the others were in the building.

"Can you get a patrol to do a drive-by down Hamilton? I have a tracker on him and he's rabbiting right now."

Les hesitated. "Ok, done but why did you put a tracker on him? Did he ping on your radar?"

Tank shook his head. Well, it had to come out eventually.

"Just do it, and I'll explain later."

~~~o0o~~~

The phone rang. Hal had now taken over in the control room.

"RangeMan."

A man who spoke only slightly more words in a day than Tank was on the line.

"Hold on."

Tank picked up the phone and barked. He was in his office processing time sensitive work that Ranger had abandoned when he rushed to the hospital. Beside phone calls checking on Stephanie from the other offices, and the usual phone calls needing attention, his patience was at an end. He wanted to take the next person to the mats on general principles alone.

"Talk."

Hal patched him the call and hung up. Everyone was on high alert and it sounded serious with the Police Chief calling.

Tank listened then spoke, choosing his words carefully. "We do have a Josh Danielson on staff but he is not in the building at the moment."

He listened some more.

"The license plate shows the car was registered to him? I had no idea he had a car parked there. We usually accommodate employee vehicles in our garage."

The Chief spoke again.

"I assume an autopsy will be done tomorrow or the next day. Keep us informed."

He hung up.

Sitting at his desk he muttered. Why had that asshole stashed a car out of the building but close enough to get to so soon? Had he been planning his getaway?

He leaned back in his chair. Josh had never seemed the type to plan something. He had always been a follower, never questioning an order or making suggestions. He'd been having some issues with Josh for the last while and he had put it down to the fact that he had applied for a transfer to a new branch and had been turned down in the first group of transfers. He didn't have the skills to be a leader and that's who they were promoting first. He had to be a minion in this. Someone was behind him pulling strings.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie began to stir. First, she could hear the beep of the monitor, and then felt the scratchy sheets. That meant that she was in a bed, probably in a hospital.

She had the mother of all headaches and her body felt like she'd been hit by a bus.

Someone was holding her hand and she could feel a thumb lightly rubbing up and down her hand, up and down, up and down. It was soothing, and truth be known, it was keeping her grounded.

Her brain felt fuzzy.

Willing her eyes to open, she could sense someone leaning over her and as her vision cleared, Ranger came into view.

He looked a bit ragged, as if he had been thrusting his fingers through his hair. His hair tie was a bit off, and he appeared to have lost his calm and cool attitude.

She began to open her mouth, but Ranger put a finger over her lips.

"Babe, you're in the hospital but you're going to be ok. The doctor will be in shortly."

He lifted her hand slightly, bent down and gave her a soft kiss, then placed it back down on the bed with his hand over hers once again.

"It appears you tripped a wire and triggered a stun grenade. Unfortunately, the hallway was narrow and the concussion blew you against the wall. The blast was supposed to be directed more towards Hectors' door and instead of a delay, it activated when your boot touched the wire. Don't try to move too much yet although the first reports say that nothing is broken."

Just then the door opened and a doctor she had never met before strode in. Bobby was behind him and a nurse completed the threesome.

He strode to the bed and looked at the monitors for confirmation.

Marking something on his chart, he looked up.

"Ms. Plum."

He looked at Ranger who had protectively placed himself between Stephanie and the doctor. He began again.

"Ms. Plum. My name is Dr. Reynolds. I am the physician in charge of your care while you are in the hospital. Do you remember what happened that put you in this situation?

Stephanie tried to marshal her thoughts. She opened her mouth and could only squeak.

Ranger picked up a glass full of water with a straw in in and cocked his head in question.

Dr. Reynolds nodded his head and Ranger put the glass to the side of Stephanies' face and held the straw to her lips.

She opened her mouth and took a small sip, then another. She released the straw and looked at the doctor once again.

"I remember walking down a hallway on the way to an office. I turned the corner and my boot touched something and the next thing I knew, I was bouncing off a wall."

She looked up at the doctor. "When can I go home?"

The doctor almost chuckled and both the nurse and Bobby smiled. Her aversion to hospitals was well known and she was a master at convincing medical staff to discharge her at the earliest opportunity.

Ranger squeezed her hand, and even he had a slight smile cross his face.

"Babe, we all know your aversion to anything medical, but let's let them finish checking you over first."

Bobby added. "Hey, Bombshell. I can be your care-giver once you're released but I need to know how serious your injuries are first."

Ranger looked at the doctor. "As you saw, we have security on the room who will be there until she is released. I assume that your staff are familiar with our methods, but please note that when she leaves the room for any procedure, they go too."

Dr. Reynolds nodded. He looked down and noted that the message was already on the top of her chart.

Nurse Wendy nodded. "Our staff are aware of the safety protocol."

Ranger looked at the doctor once again. "What's your diagnosis so far, Doctor?"

Dr. Reynolds looked down at the chart.

"Well, at first inspection, nothing appears to be broken. I assume that Ms. Plum will be feeling some discomfort from the blast in the way of aches and pains. We know she has a concussion and must be watched for complications. We've stitched up a number of deep cuts and it looked like she took a lot of sheetrock onto her from the blast. She was lucky that her clothing was fairly thick and saved her from more debris. What looks like a bad sunburn is really blast residue, but other than that, she appears to be well enough to be discharged. Ms. Plum will need to be constantly evaluated for other complications."

He looked at Bobby.

"We'd like to keep her here for a few more hours or so to ensure she is stabilized but Mr. Brown's medical knowledge is well known here and I am comfortable with releasing her into your care."

Bobby nodded his head. He knew concussion protocol very well. Mind you, and he looked at Ranger, he assumed that he would not be the primary care-giver today.

The stitches he was comfortable with removing in a timely manner and he had creams that would soothe her skin, and keep any blistering to a minimum.

Ranger reached over to shake the doctor's hand.

"Thank you. We will wait for your call then make arrangements to get her moved out so that you will not be inconvenienced any more than necessary.

The doctor shook hands and turned around.

"Ms. Plum's discharge papers will be at the nursing station when she passes my conditions."

He looked back at Stephanie.

"Need I remind you that you are to take it easy for a few days? Your headaches will dictate your actions. If you experience anything other than those, we need to see you back here at St. Francis immediately."

Stephanie tried to nod her head, but grimaced at the movement.

Ranger squeezed her hand and spoke.

"Thank you Doctor. We will take it from here."

Bobby had already stepped out of the room and having alerted Cal and Hal of the decision, he put the phone to his ear.

"Les, arrange for the Navigator to be brought to the hospital. Steph's being discharged pretty soon. Alert Ella and Luis."

He listened as Les spoke.

"Oh, I didn't know. I'll ask Ranger and get back to you who leaves the building."

~~~o0o~~~

Tank heard a commotion out in the control room and striding to the door, he opened it to find men gathered around a monitor.

Walking quietly behind them, he glimpsed the Navigator pull into the garage and head for one of Ranger's personal spaces by the elevator.

He watched as Bobby stepped out of the drivers' side and observed Ranger gently guide Stephanie from the back seat and the three of them head to the now opened elevator door. The door closed and the numbers showed heading to seven without stopping.

Back in his office Tank brought up the elevator camera feed and viewed Bobby and Ranger inside with Little Girl and both faces were completely blank. Their faces changed as suddenly Stephanie seemed to sag and fall against Ranger.

Without any hesitation, he scooped her up into his arms and held her close.

Bobby stayed back, alert.

Tank had the speaker on and heard.

"I just lost my balance for a moment. I'm fine, Ranger. Really."

He looked at Ranger with his face pressed in what appeared to be a kiss in Stephanie's curls.

"I know Babe, but this way, I have an excuse to carry you."

Stephanie sighed. It looked as though he didn't need an excuse to do anything he wanted to and well, it felt pretty comfortable tucked against Rangers' chest.

Tank noted that she looked tired. Her face had that wrinkled look which could mean a headache. He had had enough concussions that he could well imagine what she was feeling. Being that close to a blast and the collision with the hallway wall probably had not helped. She would need some kind of observation for a few days.

More time lost that Ranger and Bobby would need to account for and take time away from running RangeMan.

Tank rubbed his bald head and sighed.

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby stepped out of the bedroom and spoke to both Ella and Ranger.

"She's sleeping. As per protocol on concussions, we need to wake her every two hours for the next 36 hours. I can take some shifts and of course if anything comes up, I can be up here very, very quickly."

Ella spoke.

"I have some ironing to do and can watch Stephanie at the same time. I know you have some things on your plate right now, Ranger. If one of you can watch her over the supper rush, I can come back later in the evening."

Ranger looked pensive. On one hand he wanted to be the one watching his Babe, but on the other, he had a couple of things really needing his attention.

"If you could, Ella, I'll get a few things straightened out, Tank can handle the rest and I will cover the supper period on and all night."

Ranger looked at Bobby. He nodded his head. While everyone believed Ella was safe, only the Core Team knew what was going on behind the scenes. Mind you, Ella had her own spidey sense, and had probably figured out something was wrong in the building.

Bobby nodded. He would help out but it looked like tonight was free. That might leave him time to go look at that apartment if he could get hold of Dillon.

He mentally snapped his fingers. Of course, Dillon would be in front of his t.v. The Rangers were in tough in the first round of playoffs against the Canadiens. Having spoken to the Bombshell enough, he suspected that there would be a six pack of beer beside Dillon's chair and snacks on the tv table in front of him.

Maybe if he liked something, he might get in there and finalize an offer that Dillon could take to the owner. He had no financial concerns about a down payment and well, since it still had to be renovated, he still had a place with Les at RangeMan.

Bobby waited with Ranger as Ella left to gather her things.

"I know that look Ranger. You look like a predator stalking his prey and getting within range."

Ranger nodded. "I've got a feeling that we are getting close to finding our man and I want to go over Stephanie's notes. I'm missing something here."

Bobby hesitated but pushed on.

"I know the building is on lock-down but I'm looking at a time-sensitive errand that needs my attention. Am I restricted to the building also?

Ranger looked thoughtful. He knew from a conversation with Les on the surveillance shift that Bobby was contemplating a residential move out of the building. While he had no opinion on two of his Core Team living together for so many years, he had never passed judgement if there had been anything more.

He looked at Bobby and shook his head.

I hope this doesn't ruin your chances at the place, but I need you here now."

Bobby nodded. It was only an apartment. If he was meant to get it, he would. What was another day or so?

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie woke up. She could hear voices in the living room and tried to get out of bed. She hated to be an invalid. She had things to do.

Unfortunately she groaned a little too loudly as she swung her legs over the bed and tried to stand up. She knew she was weaving and the room was spinning. The door opened and Ella and Ranger came into the room.

Ella clucked in displeasure and Ranger frowned.

"Babe, you need to get back into bed. Your body needs to rest."

Stephanie looked at them.

"I need to pee."

Ranger strode over to her and gently placed his arm under her elbow allowing her to stand then they walked slowly to the bathroom. She pushed away and closed the door in his face. Some things needed privacy.

Ranger waited and listened as the toilet flushed and water ran in the sink. The door opened and Stephanie emerged, still wobbling a bit on unsteady legs.

Ranger put his arm under hers again and guided her back to bed. He helped as she lowered herself down to the bed that Ella had straightened out during her absence.

Ranger spoke. "Bobby left some pain meds for your headache and aches. That was the two hour mark and while we have some more to come, I'm glad that you woke up on your own."

Ella nodded with her own ESP. "I'll just warm up some soup and be back in a couple of minutes with a tray. You need something light to eat, Stephanie dear."

Stephanie grimaced. Uggh. A liquid diet? She should feel hungry. Trying to keep her whining to a minimum, she nodded. OK, soup now, real food in a couple of hours. She was pretty sure she had missed a meal somewhere.

Ella bustled in just a few minutes later with a tray. There looked to be a clear soup in a bowl and a small dish of orange jello.

Back in bed, she accepted the bed tray and began to sip the soup. The clear broth slid down her throat and soothed it. Spooning it slowly she emptied most of the bowl then started on the jello. Funny, she felt full way too soon.

Nodding that she was full, the tray was removed and Ella left, making a bit of noise in the kitchen.

Slowly she slid down from her pillow back rest and her eyes grew heavy. She felt Ranger slide into bed with her and pull her gently to him. Her eyes closed and she slept.

Ella returned and Ranger slid carefully off the bed.

"I'm just a phone call away. I'll be back soon."

Ella watched him leave the room but then looked back at the sleeping beauty in the bed. It had been so close, this last attack. Instead of a stun grenade, it could have been a real grenade.


	10. Chapter 10

_So, some things are starting to make sense. All mistakes are mine and I thank JE for allowing us access to these fantastic characters._

Chapter 10

Tank was pissed that Ranger was leaving the building without backup. It hadn't been confirmed that the threat was neutralized and Tank was making his thoughts known.

"You know better than this, Ranger. Les is available, or I can free up Bobby. If I could get out from all this paperwork, I'd come."

Ranger shook his head. He was able to look after himself and his temper flared.

"I should know when it's safe, and I think it's safe! Back off Tank!"

Tank stomped back to his office and slammed the door. Ranger looked back as he headed for the stairwell. WTH was bugging him?

Jeff was waiting by the back door and they stepped into the café, both heading for the far corner, with their backs each against a wall. He'd called Jeff and had re-booked, apologizing for standing him up.

There was a carafe of coffee waiting and the staff were working in another part of the building, assisted no doubt by a significant tip passed earlier.

Many reports had come in that Jeff was a total dick, but both Vinnie and Les were happy with his results. Never had they had all their FTA's brought back so fast after losing RangeMan as Bond Enforcement. He was acting tough, literally scaring the miscreants with underlying threats that crossing him was not a good plan.

Sure, most of the larger bonds would be heading to jail sooner or later, but word travelled fast and if the next crop of FTA's knew he was on the hunt, well, captures might go easier.

Jeff spoke.

"I was going to tell you that a contract was offered and accepted for a car incendiary. Word was coming down that the target was in Trenton."

Ranger looked at him, face blank, wanting to hear more of what he had to impart.

"As he was leaving town, he bragged that he was in the money now."

Ranger looked at Jeff as he poured a coffee.

"Did he mention whether it was for one target or a number of targets?"

Jeff shook his head.

"It was for one target and according to my other sources, it was successful."

The matter appeared to be closed so Ranger changed the subject.

"I'm sure that you know by now that Stephanie belongs to me and Lula belongs to Tank. We are pretty protective of our women and when they aren't happy, neither are we."

Jeff looked at Ranger for his facial expression, but it was carefully blank."

"Noted."

Ranger spoke again. "A lot of the men and women you pick up here are having a tough time with the economy. A suggestion that you can take or leave, show some restraint on the small things and concentrate on the big ones. You might bite off more than you can chew someday if you aren't careful."

Ranger stood up, his coffee cup untouched.

He walked out, stopping to pay for his coffee and also left a sizeable tip.

He drove back to the building, mulling over the information.

~~~o0o~~~

Tank stomped into Rangers' office.

"I'm heading out."

He turned on his heel without waiting for an answer.

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby sauntered into the lobby and Dillon was waiting. He had a sheaf of papers in his hand and passed one of them to Bobby as they waited for the elevator.

"I have a map of the building which condos are still available. Our owners are certainly motivated and I can just bet they might be willing to deal."

Bobby nodded. Dillon made a terrible salesman, but at the same time, they knew each other from Stephanie's days in her apartment.

The first condo was on the third floor, and walking in Bobby immediately shook his head no. It was too dark with windows on the north and facing another building.

Dillon followed him out the door and locked it. Next they headed for the fourth floor and Dillon opened the door with his key.

Bobby looked around. Better, but it still didn't grab him as 'the one'. He walked through the apartment checking where he might put the furniture.

"It's better, but what else have you got available."

Dillon checked his sheet and looked at Bobby.

"I have another one, a little larger, on the 6th floor. It's going to get a bit more expensive due to the square footage and the view, but you might like it."

They took the stairs and Bobby instinctively started to check where a camera could easily be placed if needed.

Dillon stopped in front of door 608.

Bobby nodded. A lucky number to be sure. Not that he was superstitious, but well an 8 was lucky. Good fortune, good life. He liked the number 8.

Dillon unlocked and opened the door then stepped back so that Bobby could enter first. He looked in then took a step inside. As soon as both feet were inside he knew, he just knew that this was the one.

The layout was perfect, open enough to feel spacious, but enough room definition for the furniture he hoped to buy. The functionality was apparent even without anything in the room.

Bobby nodded his head as he headed to the wall of windows. They were facing east and overlooking a park. Lots of light but the heat from the sun would not be pouring in during the afternoon and evening. There was a wrought iron balcony with room for a bistro table and a couple of chairs. There would be room for a barbeque. He could already visualize a couple of baskets swinging gently from hooks. He could grow tomatoes.

His mouth was already watering.

He walked back into the suite and headed for the kitchen. There were no appliances as yet and he already visualized stainless steel and a granite countertop.

Bobby walked into the Master Bedroom and he just looked around. Empty and the room looked huge. There was a walk in closet with lots of shelves, and a whole wall for shoes. There were rods for clothes, more clothes than he owned.

Smiling, he headed for the open doorway and into his Master bathroom. There was a glass shower big enough for two with multiple heads and jets. He looked to the left and spied double sinks in the vanity. The toilet was in a tiny room of its own with a door. He looked to the right and marvelled at the Jacuzzi tub with faucets situated not at one end, but in the middle. Heaven had called and he was ready.

Grudgingly he walked out and down the hall was another bedroom. It was certainly plain after the Master but it was large enough for a queen size bed.

Slightly down the hall was another bathroom with a combined shower and tub and a single sink with a large vanity.

Bobby backed out and looked at Dillon.

"How much and when can I get possession?"

Dillon smiled.

This was the easiest potential sale he had had in his new job and his boss would be impressed if he could be part of closing it.

"Well, the asking price is $499,990 but as you can see, there is some work to be done."

Bobby looked around.

"I'm interested, very interested. I just want to crunch some numbers and will get back to you."

He looked at Dillon.

"Has anyone else seen this condo?"

Dillon hesitated. If he played his cards right, this guy might give him some cash to 'hide' it until the offer came in. He looked at Bobby. While he didn't look as menacing as a lot of the men at RangeMan, this one still looked like a bad-ass. Besides that, Stephanie was a good friend and this man was a good friend of Stephanie. No, he would never be able to look Stephanie in the eye if he tricked him.

"I have a couple wanting to come up later but talking to them they sounded like they wanted something a little lower. I can't stop them if they ask to see it but I can say that I have a potential offer pending."

He stood still waiting for a response.

Bobby headed for the elevator.

"I'll be back soon with the Offer to Purchase. I have a friend I need to talk to about this who is knowledgeable about condo reno's."

This was going all the wrong way. Dillon wasn't fully licenced to close a deal yet. He was supposed to contact the building realtor who would then do their thing, but well, RangeMan liked to do things their way. If this man had someone who was knowledgeable, well, Dillon wasn't going to stop a purchase. He wasn't getting in the middle of this."

He shrugged. "Call me and I can pick up the offer then take it down to the office if you want and present it."

He figuratively crossed his fingers and hoped that Mr. Brown would want to continue doing it his way. He wasn't disappointed when Bobby shook his head.

"No, this is on me. Thank you Dillon for your assistance. I expect to be talking to you very, very soon."

Bobby strode out of the vestibule and climbed into his truck.

Dillon noticed him on the phone as he was putting on his seatbelt and then putting the phone down, he drove out of the lot.

~~~o0o~~~

Tank drove up to Lulas' building. He hadn't been able to return her calls during the mess happening at the building but he had come as soon as he was free.

It seemed like days ago that they had discussed having lunch and he was here to collect. Officially lunch had passed but maybe supper was a possibility?

He walked to the door mentally adjusting himself and smiled as he rang the doorbell. He was hoping that their delayed date would be exciting, fulfilling and rejuvenating. He really needed a break. Maybe when everything calmed down, he and Lula could sneak off for a week or two and unwind. Let Ranger stick around and keep the joint running.

As Lula answered the door, all thoughts left his head. There was something wrong.

Lula watched silently as he moved into the hallway, closing the door behind him.

He pulled her to him and cradled her against his massive chest. "What's wrong, baby?"

She shuddered as if cold.

"I got a phone call, Tank. I'm being ordered back to Tennessee for a murder investigation. As you know, I left there years ago and I thought it was all behind me."

Tank rubbed his hand up and down the small of her back. He waited for her to continue.

"My best friend was found murdered in my apartment and I was brought in and questioned for almost the whole 72 hours allowed to hold me before either charging me or letting me go. I tried to tell them over and over that I had nothing to do with it but I was never sure that they believed me. I agreed to keep the police advised of any address changes, including out of state. New evidence has apparently been uncovered and they called me a couple of nights ago. The detective in charge gave me a choice. I can go back willingly, or they will issue a bench warrant. Since it's over state lines it could even be RangeMan hired to take me back. She explained when I talked to her about my options that it would look bad and be even more serious in trying to clear myself."

She shuddered and a little sob escaped.

"I have to appear at the police station in Memphis. I didn't do it, Tankie, but they still don't believe me."

Tank shook his head. This was beyond ridiculous. His Lula, a murderer? He remembered when she had arrived in town, having trouble finding a job and with nothing on the horizon, she had joined the local ho population. She had only been a moderately successful business person.

Not trusting the police force entirely, he believed that when they had needed positive arrest numbers, she was always on their radar. Trenton was kind of backward in some matters. Black was not always bad.

RangeMan had their own contacts, and the tips the men and women had provided over the years had more than paid for the money changing hands. Tank certainly knew about Lula, but when Stephanie had befriended her, well, the men had come to know her even better.

He had discreetly checked into the stayed charge, and had come to the conclusion that she was free and clear. It appeared that he was wrong.

He looked at the bags packed behind her. She was obviously planning on either never returning or not returning for some time.

He looked around. Most of her furniture was missing. Lula never had much money and he figured that the only way she could get a ticket was to sell what worldly possessions she had accumulated over the years.

Tank walked to a kitchen chair and sat down, pulling her onto his lap. The chair groaned in protest.

His mind was going a million miles a minute looking for a solution.

She snuggled into his embrace, breathing in his scent. Who knew how long it would take for her to finish this ugly business? The law had moved slowly to this point, and it appeared that it would move slowly after this point too. Was she looking at weeks, months, or years?

Lula stood up and headed for her bags.

"Tank, I gotta go. My plane leaves in three hours."

Tank jumped up.

"Let me make some calls, baby. I can book us a later flight, and I'll come with you. I can buy almost anything I need there."

Lula shook her head, her beaded hair making clacking noises.

"No Tank. You have your work here. I know how hard you work and you need some lead time to take off."

Tank tried again. "I know some people at Atioch."

He pleaded. "Let me help, Lula. I can help. Nothing is more important than you, Lula Belle. You are my life."

Tears started to trickle down her face and Lula put her hands up to wipe them away with the palms of her hands.

"I love you with all my heart, Tank, but until I can see my way out of this mess, I want you to stay here. But, I will try to keep you in the loop with my options."

Tank tried again.

"Lula baby, are you sure you want to do this? If you say the word, I have a lot of connections and I can spirit you away."

She looked at her man. "Tankie, I need to clear my name. That's all I have left, my name. If I had to live a lie for the rest of my life, I know that I could not do that and live with myself."

He was standing like a solid rock by the doorway. To say that he was in shock was an understatement, and right now he was not understanding why this was happening and why so fast.

"If you won't let me come with you, I can at least drive you to the airport."

Lula shook her head. "I called a cab and it should be here any minute."

Tank picked up her bags in his large hands. He motioned with a nod of his head to open the door.

She squared her shoulders as she watched him exit the door with her bags. Taking one last look back at the apartment she had called home for a number of years, she closed the door firmly and walked down the stairs.

He followed behind her as she pushed the keys under the super's door along with an envelope and walked out onto the street.

A cab was just pulling up and Tank put down the luggage and headed to the drivers' door, handed the man some money and watched as he pulled away.

He picked up the bags again, carrying them to the back of his truck and stowed them, then assisted her up into the Hummer and pulled the seatbelt over her. He gave her a soft kiss on the lips and then stepping back, he closed the door.

She sat there with tears in her eyes. She was blown away again at how gentle and loving her man was.

The drive was silent and he held her hand the entire way to the airport. He carried her bags to the check-in counter and watched as she received her boarding pass. He walked with her to the security gate and stopped.

Lula was hanging onto his arm as if she was going to collapse. The security guard tried not to stare. He had seen so many exact scenarios like this in his years on the job and he hoped that neither would totally break down in front of him.

Tank embraced her once again. "I love you, Lula Belle."

Her tears were running down her cheeks and she clung to his shirt front.

"I'll let you know how this goes."

In spite of the situation, she tried to joke. "I have your number."

Tank reached for his wallet and withdrew a wad of bills. He folded them into her hand.

"Baby, you need some walkin' 'round money. Let me know and I can wire you some more. We're going to fight this. I know some lawyers who have offices in that state and they can represent you."

Lula nodded her head at him. "Tank, you've done more for me than almost anyone I know. Look after White Girl. She's strong, but she needs someone like us to keep her safe."

Tank grunted. Ranger was looking after Stephanie just fine, thank you, but yes, they all were looking out for her too.

The first call to board came over the loudspeaker and they embraced once more and gave final, tender kisses to each other then backed away.

Lula squared her shoulders and marched to the guard, showing him her boarding pass and ID and stepped into the scanner.

He watched her as she walked away. In the back of his mind he was wondering if she was moving away from his life, or away from their life.

Tank swallowed and headed back outside to his truck.

The drive home was silent with the radio off. He had a lot of thinking to do.

~~~o0o~~~

Ella tiptoed into the room and gently shook Stephanie. She didn't want to scare her but she needed to wake up. Her two hours was up.

Unfortunately Stephanie didn't want to be awakened. She swatted Ella's hand away and mumbled, "Mom, I don't want to go to school today. I want to stay home and bake cookies with you."

Ella smiled and gently shook her shoulder again.

"Stephanie dear, it's Ella. Come on honey, you need to wake up. Bobby needs a report on your symptoms."

Stephanie stirred and her eyes opened.

"I was having the nicest dream and your timing really sucks."

Ella grinned. If it had to do with a big, strong Cuban man, well, she wouldn't have liked to be wakened either!"

Stephanie answered the usual questions. What day was it, what was her name, where was she, did she remember what happened.

Satisfied, Ella asked if she needed anything. Stephanie thought about it. Bathroom needs, nope. Thirsty, yes and a dull headache.

Ella handed her a glass of Gatorade and two pills which she downed then lay back once again. By the time Ella left the room, she was asleep once again.

Ella hoped that Stephanie had gone back to dream of her man. It would make healing so much easier and more fun at the same time.

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger took the file that Stephanie had been working on. There had to be something here, there just had to be.

He spread it over the desk in his office on seven. His door was open in case Stephanie needed him.

Setting the papers as chronologically as he could, he looked it over. Then he looked at Stephanie's notes.

To his practiced eye it appeared that Stephanie was starting to wonder if there was not one threat, but two.

Had they been autonomous or were they in tandem. Was one answering to another or had they joined forces at some time?

Questions, questions, questions, but so far, no answers.

He stood up. Heading to the kitchen he took a bottle of water from the fridge and standing leaning against the counter, he drained the entire contents in a few long gulps.

Ranger stood up slowly. He remembered a chance remark at a Manoso family gathering a few months ago where his oldest nephew had been complaining to his mom that RangeMan should be a family operation.

Celia had cuffed him at the back of the head and had muttered, 'get a real job asshat and make some money before you complain about someone's success.'

Dominic had continued to complain how hard it was to find something in the present job climate and his mom had shown no pity.

"Get that stinking tattoo removed from your hand and you might have more success."

Ranger too had commented that a gang tattoo was not cool outside a gang environment and had also turned him down from ever working at RangeMan. His temper was too volatile and he made mistakes, mistakes that, with a gun in his hand, would be catastrophic to a company like RangeMan.

Ranger walked back to the papers.

He took another tack. Could a person inside RangeMan have been paid by someone outside to do the damage? Or been subcontracted? Did they have a partner?

Once again he took a look.

The electrical issue may have been completed when the sheetwallers had been working. With the walls bare, the wiring could have been installed and when the sheetrock was screwed in, they might have nicked the wires.

Luis had complained at the shoddy workmanship and had muttered that next time they renovated, he was using another company.

The weapon might have been compromised when stored between Ram and when Ranger used it a number of hours later. It had been noted on the reservation board that Ranger needed to postpone his range time.

But, the vehicle brake line must have been sliced in the garage. So, it seemed to point that someone was working from the inside.

The glint on the rifle was a mystery. He believed that it was not just a coincidence, but could have come from a tip inside the building. The take-down while not posted anywhere, had been discussed with the idea of how many men would be needed for the take-down.

Now the poison incident. That was a whole different kettle of fish. How many people knew about that one? Of course, the Core Team knew about it but other than those three, it was a well-kept secret.

~~~o0o~~~

There was a meeting across town. Held in the back room of a seedy clubhouse, the members shuffled their feet.

Hector stood in the front of the room. He was holding the tiny post-it-notes and he was glaring.

(Spoken in Spanish)

"So, who was the shithead who ordered the damage to Rangers' vehicles?"

Nobody stepped forward and it was so quiet that there could have been a pin drop and it would have been heard. A few feet shuffled on the scuffed floor and nobody was looking at Hector directly.

Hector put the pieces of paper in a pocket of his cargoes. A knife flashed through the air, just missing the gang leader by a hair breadth by his right ear.

"I'm not hearing anybody flapping their gums."

Gino looked up at Hector then he stood taller.

"We need some new blood and what better initiation than to try for an important person. We figured they were expendable and well, if they got caught, (and he shrugged) it was their own damn fault."

A voice could be heard from the back.

"They our brothers now and we're family. We look after our own."

Hector pulled out another knife from somewhere on his body. He tapped it against his palm.

"Who are these brothers? Hiding behind a tiny piece of paper ordering someone around. Can't you even stand up enough to take credit for messing with Ranger? I want to see these new brothers because quite frankly, I want to look them in the eyes and find out how tough they are. Taking orders from a note doesn't sound very tough."

Almost as if choreographed, three young boys were pushed out of the body of men and stood quivering in the limelight. Their faces were ashen and their hands were shaking.

Hector looked at them and snorted.

"In my day, children wouldn't even have been approached until they reached the age of 12. They look barely 10 and right now, it appears that they are wanting to hide behind their mamas skirts for protection."

He smelled a urine smell and looked at one of the boys. The front of his pants was wet and a puddle was forming on the floor between his legs.

He looked at the group and snarled.

"Any more 'mishaps' to do with Ranger, and I will come visiting again. Ranger might want to come and let you explain your actions to him."

There was a collective gasp from the group.

No way did they want to go up against Ranger.

Hector walked to where his knife was embedded in the wall, pulled it out and slid it back into its holster. He then elbowed Gino out of the way and walked backwards to the door, never turning his back on the group.

He walked out of the clubhouse and disappeared around the corner.


	11. Chapter 11

_Thank you for all the reviews. I am enjoying reading your thoughts and your queries as to the bad guy._

Chapter 11

The Chief phoned Ranger.

"Positive recognition on the deceased in the car. Dental records confirm that it was your employee, Josh Danielson."

Ranger grunted. While it was concerning that he had taken off before a building-wide direct order to stay inside the building, whatever he had been involved in might have contributed to his death.

How to trace it back to the person in charge?

He had ordered Les search Josh's apartment before it was packed up. Les was the best cleaner he had ever known. Much could be learned from personal possessions. Word had come back that it was the usual plain interior favored by most of the men. Their personal possessions were memories, not knick-knacks.

~~~o0o~~~

Ugh, that little weasel. Well, he was useful but his time was up. I'm not done yet but I have to find that other patsy. He could still spill everything he knew to Ranger. I still have some money left.

~~~o0o~~~

Lula phoned Tank but he was in the middle of a meeting and let it go to voicemail.

She left a short message. "Hey Tankie, it's me. I'm a letting you know I arrived safe and I talked to the detective. I want to say that it's going good, but that might jinx the whole thing, so I won't. Love you, you big lug."

Tank listened to it and shook his head. He tried to call her, but it also went to voicemail.

"Hey Lula Belle. Playing telephone tag here. Will call later."

~~~o0o~~~

Tank sat at his desk, his forehead furrowed.

He had just heard from his contact in Memphis and the detective was zeroing in on Lula as an accessory. It looked like an easy solution to a cold case that had bothered the Memphis Police Cold Case Team for some time.

Never mind that Lula had alibis that had held true even this many years later. She was the only person of interest and Detective Janice Mann wanted it off her desk and out of her file cabinet.

~~~o0o~~~

Detective Mann looked at the available information again and made a call.

"Bring her in again. Let's see if she can trip herself up and confess to something."

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger looked at the file. Something was not sitting right. While sitting at Stephanie's bedside he had taken the time to look it over.

Josh Danielson had electronics training.

Josh Danielson had a sub specialty in armaments.

Josh Danielson had been on shift every time Stephanie thought her desk was rifled through.

Was Josh Danielson his traitor?

He thought back to any interaction with the man. He had come well recommended as a calm, efficient employee who would not be angling for a fast rise up the ladder to leadership. There were leaders of the world and there were followers. Josh had certainly been a follower.

He looked at Josh's last performance report. Everything had been marked as 'Adequate'. He had done his job, had performed 'adequately', not rocking any boats.

Ranger looked at the file again.

There had to be someone else who was helping him in the building.

~~~o0o~~~

Les was still casting around trying to find out what the suit was for and Tank was getting more and more exasperated by the moment.

He was ready to call Les to the mats for absolutely no other reason than he was pissed, but unfortunately he couldn't. Ranger had left the building without telling anyone again and he had disabled his GPS. Now, where the hell had he gone to this time without back-up?

He looked at the mound of paperwork that was piling up again with Ranger out. He had just cleaned it off this morning but with sit reps and requests coming in faster than a locust cloud, it was overwhelming.

Tank slammed his hands down in exasperation and stood up.

He needed to get out of his office and the first person he encountered was heading to the mats with him!

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie stirred and made grumbling noises and Ranger headed for the bedroom.

She looked more alert than the other few times he had checked on her.

Assisting her to the bathroom once again, he offered her a drink and more pain relief. This time she shook her head no.

"It makes me sleepy."

Ranger helped her back to bed and crawled in on the other side.

Instead of laying down, Stephanie sat back against the pillows and looked at Ranger.

I had the most interesting dream, Ranger."

He pulled her closely to him. A drugged sleep sometimes elicited strange dreams.

Stephanie doggedly continued.

"I dreamed of you, which is normal, but you had a man bun." She smiled. "You did look cute, in a weird sort of way."

Ranger growled. Never, not in this or any other life-time would he resort to that. Shaving his head, again, would be preferable. "Babe".

"Beside your man-bun, you had on only a pair of your black boxers. You were sitting beside a pool with a palm tree providing shade. It almost looked like Miami but I know you don't have any pools at the RangeMan building there. Maybe it was a house or a condo off site?"

She looked at him again, and shook her head. Ranger definitely did not look like the man-bun kind of guy!

Stephanie started to look serious.

"So, let's talk while I'm still fresh."

Ranger wanted to hug her to him and cuddle her but he was a leery of her still tender muscles.

"I've gone over the file you made and all your notes, Babe. I see where you were starting to wonder that there might be more than one assailant here. Wait a minute and I'll go get the paperwork."

He climbed off the bed and headed back to the office, gathering the papers and returning to the bed once again.

He rustled the papers into some kind of order and spoke.

"At first glance I think we all assumed that every incident was pulled off by one person, but the more I look at it, I agree that there may be multiple perps."

He shuffled some more papers.

The tiny post-it notes had been copied and the page was in Rangers' hand.

"I wonder if someone small, like a young punk in a gang-kind of initiation might be involved here. Young and stupid, they were probably told where to stand, or where to do whatever was asked of them. Who knows, they may have been handed the note and after whatever was on it, they just threw it away. That I am going to pursue with Hector, but Hector being Hector, he took off again. He has his ear to the ground on such matters and may be onto something."

He pulled some other papers out.

"These concern me. Nobody but someone in the RangeMan organization has access this deeply into my building. I think that we have someone here, maybe working on some kind of order, or threat to do this kind of damage."

He paused.

"I'm not sure it's related but Josh Danielson died in a car explosion just a few blocks away. It was right around the time of your accident and that leads me to think that this might have something to do with him."

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby phoned Ranger.

"I think I've found the perfect place but they are going fast. Dillon, who used to be Stephanie's building superintendent isn't knowledgeable enough to broker this deal. Do you think I could take out the middle man and just call that lawyer we just signed the contract with?

Ranger thought about it. Ron was still a new customer and while he seemed straight-forward, he knew J.J.

"How about you phone J.J. and get him to call this guy. They know each other quite well and he might be able to grease some wheels for you."

Bobby hung up without a reply and looking through his phone contacts he called the office.

J.J.'s efficient assistant, Alice, answered and put him through.

Bobby spoke.

"Hey J.J., how's the new leg?"

J.J. growled at Bobby. He was nursing a stump rub and was in a growly mood.

"Legs fine, stump hurts like a bugger. Do you make house calls?"

Bobby smiled.

"Be right there. I have my bag in the truck."

This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to broach his reason for calling.

Bobby walked into the office and Alice put him right through. While she had been through J.J.'s many 'tudes, today he was especially short. Even her miniature and delicious carrot muffins were not helping. Camomile tea was not helping, and neither was her suggestion that he take the rest of the day off.

She nodded her head toward the door and mouthed, 'good luck'.

Bobby slightly grimaced and holding his bag a big closer, he opened then closed the door behind him.

J.J. had his prosthesis sitting on the desk top and he was most definitely glaring.

Bobby was the ultimate professional medic and strolled around to the side of the desk where J.J. was sitting. Squatting down he took a look at the stump.

It was red and angry looking and there was the start of what might turn out to be an issue if not looked after shortly.

He opened his bag and put on his gloves. He looked sideways at J.J. and asked.

"Do you want some pain medication before I work on this? It's going to hurt."

J.J. continued to glare.

"Do something, I can take it. Whatever torture you plan on doing is better than this."

Bobby took a bottle out of his bag and very gently squeezed the liquid out, then taking a soft sterile pad, he cleaned the area. Working as carefully and gently as he could he then spread an antibiotic salve over the entire area and then taped a soft bandage over the entire area. J.J. was gripping the arms on his office chair, and beads of perspiration had popped out on his forehead, but he remained silent.

Bobby cleaned up and put all the medical garbage in a disposable bag which he threw back into his bag.

"Where did you leave your crutches?"

J.J. nodded at the closet and Bobby walked over, opened the door and pulling the pair out, headed back to J.J. He leaned the offending but useful objects against the wall behind the chair. Walking around to the front of the desk Bobby sat in one of the guest chairs, his bag down on the soft carpet beside him.

"What the hell did you do this time?"

J.J. grimaced.

"Jessie wanted to go roller blading, and I thought that that would be fun, a let's do it together kind of an activity. Not one of my better ideas."

Bobby's eyebrow raised slightly.

J.J. was an adrenaline junkie but was slowly, ever so slowly discovering his limitations.

J.J. continued. "I was doing great then I had the bright idea to try some of the tricks. Let me tell you, some of them take some serious skill."

Bobby continued to stare and J.J. continued. "The kids make it look easy so I tried a couple."

He shook his head.

J.J. was slowly starting to relax and his face was becoming less tense.

Bobby spoke.

"That lawyer you recommended we look at his security situation is a property lawyer, right?"

J.J. nodded.

"He's damn good, if I say so myself."

Bobby nodded.

"I'm looking at getting a place out of the RangeMan building and I found a condo being renovated. Do you think he would take me on as a client?"

J.J. reached over and picked up his phone.

"Ron please if he's available, Angela. It's J.J."

He waited all the while looking carefully at Bobby. Why the move out of the building?

Ron came on the line and Bobby smiled at the obvious banter going on between them.

J.J. eventually came to the point.

"I have a friend who's looking at purchasing a condo being renovated and he needs some assistance in putting together an Offer to Purchase. Do you have a minute to meet with him and guide him through the process?"

He waited as Ron spoke.

"He's in my office right now and", J.J. looked at Bobby wondering if he knew what he was about to ask? Bobby looked at his watch and nodded; "could you see him as soon as he can get over there? He's a RangeMan."

J.J. nodded a few times and smiled as he hung up.

He wrote down the address and handed it to Bobby.

"He has a few minutes. He's an interesting guy."

He looked at Bobby.

"And let him know I'll pick up the tab for our next luncheon."

Bobby stood up and shook J.J.'s hand. He was all about fair play and he assumed that helping J.J. in his time of need had been reciprocated.

He walked out the door, giving a thumbs up to Alice. She sighed in relief.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie took a step out of the apartment. So far, so good.

She pressed the elevator button willing it to bring up the elevator before a certain someone noticed. The elevator door opened and she stepped in. Pressing the 2 on the pad she leaned against the back wall, grimacing a bit at the shuddering movements. Never before had she really believed that the elevator jerked on moving, but whatever was happening was making her head hurt.

The elevator door opened and she stepped out. She needed to walk down that hallway to Hector's little command centre and she needed to do it alone. She needed to conquer her fear of what had happened a number of days ago.

Her gait slowed as she turned the corner.

She looked around. Luis had obviously repaired whatever damage had happened. The walls looked normal and the industrial rug was as it always looked. If she hadn't known what had transpired a few days ago, it would never appear different.

She continued to Hector's room and knocked softly.

The door opened and Hector stood there. It was obvious that he knew who was on the other side of the door and motioned her to come inside.

The door closed and Stephanie felt the need to head to a chair close to the desk, sinking into it with a sigh.

Hector looked as if he had just returned from outside as he was still wearing his jacket.

She spoke.

"I want to check with you about these attacks on Ranger and on RangeMan."

Hector nodded.

"Chica, I have just returned from a fact-finding mission and Ranger knows what I found out. The yellow post-it-notes will now discontinue, of this I am certain. It was the stupid actions of a gang initiation and after my little chat with them, I suspect that there will be no more episodes."

He moved around to sit at the desk.

"The hang-ups on Rangers' phone have now stopped. It may or may not coincide with Josh's untimely end."

He looked at Stephanie. She had been involved in so, so many car explosions and it was a miracle that she was still around. Was it plain luck or her spidey sense? Who could answer that?

"Is there something you want me to check, Estephania?"

He looked at her and could see her forehead wrinkling. Was she thinking or was she in the throes of a concussion headache?

"This is just between you and me but who would take over if Ranger died? I mean, either from a mission, or from an accident of some kind?"

Hector looked at her with her very serious expression. Up until now they were taking it one step at a time targeting who had damaged RangeMan property. With the sudden demise of Josh, was this now an issue?

Stephanie looked so serious, and sad.

He thought back. Yeah they had figured everything had been done by one person but that was now proven false. Could there still be a threat?

Stephanie stood up and walked to the door. She looked a bit unsteady and Hector moved to her side, taking her arm in his.

"How about as friends, I walk with you to the elevator and up to seven."

She hesitated, then nodded. How embarrassing would it be to collapse before she got back to her bed? She didn't need another episode of medical intervention in the building.

Smiling, she moved her hand and placed it in the crook of Hectors arm and motioned toward the door.

"Friends".

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger phoned his sister, Celia.

"C, have you seen or heard from Dom in the last week or so?"

Celia stopped washing the dishes in her kitchen and wiped her now shaking hands on a towel.

"He didn't come for supper on Sunday, giving the excuse that he was delayed and out with friends. Why?"

Ranger drummed his fingers on the blotter. He had just received a report from two of his men that Dominic was still hanging out with some pretty unsavory characters. They had heard rumors that he was bragging that soon he would be rolling in the dough and he would be garnering some new friendships soon.

Celia paused.

"If he's up to no good, little brother, don't go easy on him. He needs to learn."

Ranger nodded. His sister was on board.

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby stepped into the office of Ronald McDougall, LLC. His secretary, Angela nodded at him and motioned for him to follow her. She stood by the door and knocked softly.

Ron answered and she opened the door, ushering in Bobby.

Closing the door, she put her fist into her mouth. Man, were all those men from RangeMan built!

She headed back to her desk.

Bobby walked in and strode to the desk with his hand out. Ron extended his own hand and they shook.

Bobby spoke.

"Thanks for seeing me on such short notice. I understand you are acquainted with J.J. Jamieson and he recommended you for helping me."

Ron smiled.

Bobby spoke again. "He asked me to pass on that lunch was on him the next time you meet."

Ron grinned. Something big must have happened.

They got down to business.

Bobby pulled out the sheet Dillon had given him and they brought up the information on the realtor website. Ron nodded. He knew the building very well. So well, in fact that unknown to Bobby, his firm was taking on the sale of the condos for J.J's girlfriend.

She had purchased the building as a rental unit and was in the midst of all the paperwork necessary for it to be converted to condominiums.

Ron looked at the address then quickly checked his file to be certain.

"As a lawyer, I am advising you that under full disclosure, I am the lawyer for the building owner and I would have been looking over the final details anyway. Saying that, since I might be handling both sale and purchase, both you and the owner would get a discounted rate for my services."

He paused.

"If you are uncomfortable with that, please tell me now and I will arrange for you to be handled by one of my associates who I can vouch for."

Bobby thought about it. Quickly weighing all the reasons why or why not, he reasoned that while on opposite sides of the sale, sometimes it didn't hurt to combine efforts.

He nodded.

"As long as you are looking after my interests as well as the owners, I can live with it. Saying that, I want to be fair, but the asking price is obviously too high, considering what needs to be done to get it ready for occupancy."

They settled down and got to work, going over the figures and the timeline.

When it was to Bobby's satisfaction, he signed the offer and Ron made a copy of the form.

They had counter-offered at $450,000 with the owner supplying Bobby's choice of top of the line appliances, his color choice of granite countertops and birch hardwood flooring throughout. Possession was to be in six weeks with all the titles and additional taxes absorbed by the building owner. Bobby had asked that he be allotted two parking spaces in the garage with a lockable storage locker.

Ron looked it over. It was a good offer and he couldn't see the owner wanting to change much. While it was not the penthouse, it was high enough and spacious enough that Bobby could enjoy it and if and when it came time to sell, would garner a good price on the market. As the saying went; location, location, location.

Bobby looked over at Ron.

"I'll be waiting for your call."

Ron nodded and they shook hands.

Bobby stood up and headed to the door. As he walked out he felt a buzz coming from his phone. Looking at the text he grimaced. He was being quizzed for his ETA back at the building. Had something else happened?

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie was working in Ranger's office on seven. Something was niggling at her and she was typing away.

She spun the chair only a little and grimaced. Until she was feeling much, much better, spinning round and round would not be a good thing right now.

She tried another tack. Leaning back she looked at the ceiling, literally counting the ceiling tiles and trying to figure out what it was.

She leaned forward and brought up Josh Danielsons' file. He was on the list to look at but with his death she had put it way down under the files.

She brought up his employment file. Nothing special there. He had been a Marine, and while he had never been a member of any elite squads, or garnered special attention due to his specialties, he had been a solid soldier, a good and reliable employee, and a fun person to be around.

So what had turned him?

She dug, and looked, and dug again. She tried for a financial route, a gambling problem, a disguised medical route, a love relationship route, even any sports or hobbies that might lend itself to his actions.

Nothing came up and she pursed her lips in frustration. At first glance, there was just nothing to tie him to anything.

Her headache was getting worse and she shut down the computer. It was time to lay down. She didn't want any more medication because she didn't want the fuzzy after effects.

Walking to the bedroom, she was shedding clothes as she walked. She'd apologize to Ella and Ranger later but right now the bed was calling her name.

Her head hit the pillow and her eyes closed.

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger pulled up to the house.

He had not brought any back-up and nobody knew he was coming.

He had done his due diligence and was positive that his nephew Dominic was involved in some plot to get rid of him. His chance remark had kept him searchling for information and he was finally rewarded with an informant who confirmed that he was right.

It was time to stop this, right now.

Getting into the house was easy since RangeMan managed the security on the property. Ranger had disabled the alarm with a terse call to the control room. He used his picks and was standing in the hallway looking around seconds later.

The house was a mess, with an unclean smell. Rangers' nose wrinkled in disgust. If his mom saw this, she would box his ears and then make him clean it up!

As expected, Dominic was sound asleep on the couch, a pizza box on the floor, empty beer cans scattered upright and laying down on the table and porn magazines laying open over the back of the couch.

Dominic woke up to a fist in his shirt pulling him off the couch and his body slammed against the wall.

"I've been checking out rumors of you bragging all over town coming into money soon, and even more talk of taking over my company. So, asshole, you want to play with the big boys, here's your chance."

Ranger watched for the first swing from a groggy Dom and it was as tepid as he had suspected. He shifted his head just a few inches and noted with satisfaction that Dominic had hit the back of his fist against the wall when he tried to take a swing. He had let him try a first shot but now it was his turn. Still holding him against the wall, he planted a fist into his nose, hearing a satisfying crunch and a cry of pain as blood splattered down Dominics' shirt.

His next punch was a fist into Dom's abdomen making his mouth open and his legs begin to sag. One more and he would be done. This one was a soft one to the jaw and watching him sink to the floor and whimpering in misery,

Ranger stood over him. He didn't need a broken jaw. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.

"I know of your stupid plot to get someone in the building to come after me. Real men do it themselves."

He paused.

"I had an interesting conversation with your grandfather a couple of hours ago. It seems that you cashed out your education trust fund showing the manager a letter stating you were accepted to a university out of state. Since there is no college acceptance letter that I know of, and I know that your mom would have told me of such a development, I can only assume that you used the money to pay off your man who was attempting to take me out, then paying the contract amount on the bomb that subsequently killed him."

He took a breath and spoke again.

"I mentioned it to you on numerous occasions and your mom has mentioned to me that the crowd you have been running around with are not good people to be associated with. You, though, have taken it to a whole different level and I am telling you that it's about to stop, right now."

He picked up Dom who was slumped down on the floor leaning against the wall and dragged him back over to the couch, literally tossing him onto it.

He stood over him.

"Now would be a very good time to come clean, Dominic."

Dom groaned and wiped the blood trickling down his nose. He looked at Ranger standing over him and started to whine.

"I can't get a job and everyone tells me that I'm a loser. Then some guys at the bar told me that since I'm related to you I should be working at RangeMan and learning the ropes to take over some day. It sounded good to me and they were really helpful in setting me up with some guys they knew who could help me."

He rubbed the shirtsleeve over his face and looked up at Ranger.

"Damn, Uncle Carlos. I asked way back to join RangeMan and you embarrassed me in front of our whole family saying that I would never work there."

Ranger felt no pity for his up 'til now worthless nephew.

"Give me names, and places, Dom."

Dominic sat up and began to talk, hiccuping now and then. Ranger was recording his every word, and memorizing the names of the 'friends' to visit later.

After Dom finished talking Ranger spoke.

"It would be in your best interest to advise your mom that you are moving away to pursue work in another state. You will write her every week telling her that you are fine and not to worry about you. You are also not to set foot in any of our family celebrations until I tell you that you can come back."

He looked at Dom still looking a bit shell-shocked. "Here is a VISA pre-paid card for $500. That will get you some gas for your car, one or two nights in a cheap motel, and some money for food. It's not enough to live on, but it's enough to get out of here and try to make something of yourself. I suggest you figure out what you want to do fairly fast."

He paused.

"I am in a lenient mood today, since you are family."

Ranger walked out the door, climbed into his vehicle and drove off.

~~~o0o~~~


	12. Chapter 12

_Thank you for the wonderful reviews. Things are starting to come together, but…._

Chapter 12

Stephanie woke from her nap. Funny, she felt better than she had since her accident.

She walked to the bathroom and did her business, then decided to have a shower. It was time to get back to the land of the living.

Coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her and another around her hair, she jumped as Ranger spoke.

"Feeling better, Babe?"

He was standing in the doorway leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed.

She nodded her head, trying not to dislodge the towel now starting to slide sideways off her head.

"Yeah, I woke up and I feel better than I have for a few days, Ranger. I guess I'm back to normal which means I don't need to be watched so much anymore."

She strolled to the closet and returned with her lingerie in one hand and her version of a RangeMan uniform in the other.

Ranger slid his eyes to the towel wrapped around her and tucked in between her breasts. His eyes changed and Stephanie noticed they were almost molten chocolate in color.

Her breathing hitched. It had been days since they had done anything of a romantic nature and it looked like Ranger was about to pounce.

Playing the devils' advocate, she turned her back to him and laid the clothes on the bed, a set of her sexiest lingerie on top.

She barely heard him as he materialized behind her. Even though she knew he was close, she squeaked in surprise. His hands rubbed softly up and down her arms, then one cupped her neck dislodging the towel completely leaving strands of damp hair covering her shoulders, her back and even a couple curling over her face.

She smiled in anticipation. She was ready, well, more than ready for a Ranger induced orgasm or two.

Her towel slipped down her body, exposing first her back, down past her waist and over her hips, pooling at her feet.

Ranger turned his babe to him, smiling at her breasts already swelling. He loved to play with her breasts and one hand was already massaging one and the other hand was making lazy circles on her abdomen and around her ribs. He changed tactics and slid his hands down her cheeks and lifting her, he laid her carefully on the bed, letting his eyes wander down her body. There were still a few droplets of water on her body and Ranger watched as they slid slowly down, meandering as they made a slow journey to land on the sheet.

Stephanie smiled. Who was she kidding? She didn't want to delay any longer. She wanted her Ranger, and she wanted him now!

He climbed on the bed and straddling her hips, he leaned down with his hands placed on both sides of her head, slowly, softly kissed her lips.

She moaned. She was so ready for his next move.

"Babe, tell me now if you're not ready."

Stephanie looked up at her man.

"Bring it on, Batman!"

Ranger could feel her shift her hips in anticipation and smiled.

Tank could handle anything downstairs and he was going to spend some quality time with his Babe.

~~~o0o~~~

Tank tried to phone Lula. He listened to the busy signal. It appeared that she had either filled up her in-box or had disabled it.

He hung up.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie stepped off the elevator and headed to her office. She was holding the folder with all the information on Josh in her hand.

There was something there, she just knew it. She wasn't giving up.

~~~o0o~~~

Les found Bobby in his office.

Hey buddy, see anything today in that building that you liked?"

Bobby nodded his head, almost tentatively.

"You wouldn't believe it, Les. Dillon is the property manager of a building being renovated for condos and I met with him. He showed me a number of the suites. I really like one and I've just put in an offer."

He looked at Les. Was their living arrangements about to end soon? How would they both handle it?

Les kept his emotions in check. While he was happy that Bobby might get what he had wanted to do, it would certainly change their after-hours relationship.

He tried to stay positive.

"Any idea when you will hear back?"

Bobby shrugged.

"They have to take it to the owner, and I do anticipate some kind of a counter offer. I've never bought anything like this before, but I hope it's not too long."

He added.

"It needs a lot of work to be ready to move in, but if I get it, I'm having a hell of a condo-warming party."

Les grinned. A party. It was time for a party. He knew some girls.

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger was sitting in his desk silently groaning over the paperwork in front of him. Tank walked into his office and dumped a pile of folders on the edge of the desk.

"You left without back-up and what really pisses me off right now, you dumped all this shit on my desk before you left leaving me to do this."

He harrumphed and sat down in the guest chair.

Tank noticed the bruised knuckles on Rangers' right hand and pointed at them.

"Are you going to tell me what you were doing, or do I have to dig and find that out myself too?"

Ranger looked at Tank. What the hell was bugging his butt?

"I think we can safely put to bed the attempts on my life. Ted and Marco heard some rumors and I've been following them up. I talked to Celia and she told me that Dominic has been acting strange, or at least stranger lately. He was bragging around town that he was going to be The Man soon and would repay his friends when he was," and he put his fingers in the air making quote motions, "in the money".

Tank looked at Ranger.

"Dominic had the brains to plan this? I never thought he was much good at anything, except being lazy."

Ranger nodded in agreement.

"And get this. He convinced Dad to release his education trust fund with a bogus acceptance letter from some university. He used it to pay Josh, and some contract that Jeff Bowman heard from his own sources to blow up Joshs' car with Josh in it.

Tanks shook his head. While he would never place any blame on Ricardo Sr. for releasing the money, if it had been a true offer, the entire Manoso family would have heard about such an acceptance at their next get-together and then the money would have changed hands. They were all about celebrating achievements and congratulating the recipient. He mentally wondered if Ranger might need to start to keep an eye on his parents soon. They were getting older and while still alert, might require a helping hand in the future.

Ah yes, more time and planning taking time away from RangeMan.

"Well, it's settled now, or will be shortly. I educated him with a few of my thoughts on what I thought of his plan. He should be literally on the road to somewhere out of the state soon if he isn't already on the way. Mind you, he needs his nose and jaw looked after first."

Ranger shook his head. "I just can't get over what he would have done if he had succeeded. He has no knowledge of how this company works. He doesn't have the respect of the men. He doesn't have any training, or licenses. I suspect that he never thought of those issues."

He shook his head. "He's acted like a spoiled brat most of his life, but maybe this will make him grow up. I hope so. Celia doesn't need that around her."

Ranger pulled out his phone.

"After some convincing, Dom spilled who he talked to and where they met. I made a copy of it all just in case he tries something again. He's family and gets one free pass. If he even thinks of trying this again, I will take this further."

They listened to the taped conversation. Ranger pressed stop and put the phone back in his pocket.

"I've tracked down where he liked to meet these guys. It's some dingy bar down on Comstock. I was going to check it out and pay them a visit. If you want some fun, you can come too."

Ranger waited, and waited, but Tank didn't bite. He used to love knocking heads.

Ranger finally muttered. "Maybe I'll take Les. He's family, after all."

Ranger changed the subject.

Heard from Lula since she left?"

Tank shook his head.

"We seem to be playing telephone tag here, and the last time I called it rang busy. Either her box is full or she turned off the message manager. I tried to call the police station but of course, nobody knows us there and wouldn't give me any information."

He shook his massive head.

"I wish I could just head down there to see for myself what's going on. If they place her in custody, I'll get a call from a bail bondsman I talked to. He's keeping his eyes open and will let me know. I already told him I would cover the bail if it goes to shit."

Ranger looked at his friend.

Tank was bothered and Ranger didn't think it was because of Lula. While nobody liked paperwork, Tank had settled into his position as second in command like he had been born to lead and while not going out in the field anymore, he had never complained. Something had changed.

Did his friend need a holiday? Did he need a change of pace? Was there something else?

Ranger steepled his fingers together.

"Once we straighten out the mess around here, how about you take some time off and head out. You can go down to see Lula, you can take off somewhere away from any RangeMan properties, or if you want, you can go and check out some of our offices, and maybe bang some heads around that need it. Sometimes that can be interesting."

Tank grunted. It almost sounded like Ranger wanted him out of the office.

He stood up.

"I'll think about it."

Just as he was about to close the door, he looked back in.

"I just received a resignation letter from Thomas Fenwick. He asked for an immediate release saying that he wanted to move back to Boston for a new job. He stated he didn't like the work he was doing with Rodriquez. I approved it, but I think we should follow it up. Too pat for me and we all believe that Josh needed some kind of eyes keeping watch.

A couple of the guys were mentioning that they think he has a gambling habit. They noticed a few muscle types hanging around our building and when the guys confronted them, they were asking if Tom was around."

He walked out, closing the door behind him.

Ranger looked at the closed door and his forehead showed a tiny wrinkle of worry.

On top of everything else, now one of his men, or former men had a gambling habit? Could this day get any better?

Now he was really worried.

~~~o0o~~~

Tank tossed the invitation in the recycling basket. He had just phoned in his regrets on attending the dinner for tomorrow citing work scheduling. Of course, they had been disappointed, but well, volunteers attended when they could.

A courier was going to pick up the cheque from the front desk and the Master of Ceremonies said that he would announce the presentation in absentia.

Lula had also phoned in her regrets. She too had called it work related.

He walked out of the office and down to his truck in the garage. Disabling his GPS he drove out of the garage.

Two could play that game.

~~~o0o~~~

The Police Chief was on the phone with Ranger again.

"I thought you might like to know that we have charged Michael Flynn with hit and run on your accident. His fingerprints were all over the car and he was known to us through some prior brushes with the law. He's also on probation for a number of break and enters, drunk and disorderly behavior, and common mischief charges. He vaguely remembered taking a car that had keys in the ignition and the accident but expressed an almost petrified concern that he be kept safely in jail in case RangeMan finds him and hides his body."

The Police Chief coughed.

"I laughed at the remark, but he was only joking, right?"

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby was sitting at his desk finalizing a patient file. Woody had just had his stitches removed and was on light duty for a few more days.

They had talked while Bobby made notes in his file.

Woody and Natalie were officially done. He was moved out of her apartment and into an available suite on four. The guys were supportive and welcomed him back with an impromptu welcome back get-together.

Bobby mentioned that he was waiting for a call about his condo offer and while he was trying to remain calm, it was a bit exciting to think that he might be an owner soon. The men had expressed their support of this residential change and had volunteered their time to help him move in when the time came.

Just then, his cell phone buzzed and he looked at the display. Woody stood up and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Ron."

Ron smiled. They all talked with the least amount of words.

Ron spoke.

"We have a counter-offer and looking over it, I think you might like it."

Bobby toyed with his pen.

"Do I need to see you or can we talk over the phone?"

Ron could be heard shuffling some paper.

"There are so few changes that we can talk now. They countered with $465,000, but included all the things we wanted. The only hang-up is the possession date. They want eight weeks."

Bobby thought about it. It was still a good deal and he could live with the two week delay.

"I think that's fair. Can you fax it to me for a signature?"

Ron had the number and hung up. He would get Angela on it right away.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie was chewing her pen. It was a habit she had never broken and it literally drove Ranger crazy. He would come into his seventh floor office and find a pen here and there chewed. They quickly hit the garbage can and he would pick a new one out of his desk to work with.

She sat looking at the file. There was something here, and she knew it. Something, somewhere was making her nervous.

The file was fairly thick with all her angles of research.

Josh had led a boring life, nothing to make him stand out.

Yet…

Maybe it was time to dig sideways.

She had looked at his family, his work habits, his military record. She had checked his financial records. She knew how often he changed his vehicles and moved before settling into a suite on four in the building.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

She put her pen down.

Could it be someone in his past that had made him do this?

Delving into school records and then military records, she unearthed his school buddies, and girlfriends. She looked at each one carefully, doing her due diligence.

Bringing up each of the yearbooks where he had attended high school she checked each picture looking for a clue.

There, almost as an add-in was one tiny picture of Josh with his arm around a fellow cross-country athlete. It looked like they had just finished a race as they looked sweaty and hair plastered to their heads. They had numbers attached to their running jerseys and they were wearing the same school colors.

The boy was taller than Josh and built like a runner.

Checking, she noted his features and began to delve into this person.

She found him in the individual pictures telling of the students' loves, and dreams for the future on his Grade 12 graduation bio. His name was Daniel Roberts and he was a year older than Josh.

It showed a young man with a fairly new brush cut. He was standing ramrod stiff for the picture and the caption stated he was joining the Army after graduation.

Stephanie's fingers flew over the keys now looking for Daniel Roberts.

Her records showed that he had died on a mission that was classified. She copied the information and headed to Ranger.

He had the clearance to open that file.

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby was trying to stay busy by tidying up an already tidy infirmary. He heard his fax machine beep and begin to spit out some paper.

He walked slowly back into the office and reached for the papers.

This was it. Until now it was free to look and to pretend, but by signing his name, he was assuming the responsibility of home ownership. It was an exciting time. It was a scary time.

Bobby signed the papers, initialled where was indicated and faxed them back.

His next call was to his financial advisor, letting him know of his forthcoming monetary needs.

Lorne Mireau was excited for his good fortune.

"Time to go shopping buddy. You need furniture, and accessories. You need wine glasses."

Bobby groaned to himself. What had he gotten himself into?

He pressed a button.

"Ella?"

~~~o0o~~~

Julie phoned her dad wanting to talk. He put down the papers he was looking at and leaned back in his chair.

He and Julie were conversing more and even some visits here and there when he was in Miami at the office.

He had just sent her her birthday present and apologized for not delivering it in person. With what was going on, it was better to stay in one place and get it sorted out rather than take off and have whatever danger follow him and involve her – again.

Ranger listened as Julie poured out her thoughts and worries. She spoke a mile a minute and he could just imagine her walking around in her room with her phone pressed to her ear being held by a shoulder and both arms waving about. She was a very dynamic personality and she was hard to stop.

She was having the usual issues about not been tall enough or popular enough. She was called slanderous names by some students upset with her Latino parentage. She had her Intermediate Drivers License but her mom and step-dad didn't want her running around late at night with the car they had bought for her.

She knew that Ranger had sent half the money for the car but had tried to stay low-key, not wanting to over step their authority.

Julie rambled on, talking a mile a minute. Finally she stopped, took a breath and asked, "How's Stephanie?"

Ranger put his thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose. And there was the other shoe dropping. She knew darn well how she was doing. They were both on Facebook and messaged each other all the time. She was fishing.

"Stephanie's fine, Julie. I think she's working down the hall on something right now."

Julie took a breath.

"Dad, when are you and Stephanie going to get married? I know you love her and I know she loves you so what's the hold-up?"

Her voice took on that whiney tone that had always made Ranger cringe.

"Honey, Stephanie and I are still working out things. I can assure you that if there's a wedding, you'll be the first person invited to the ceremony."

Grumbling came down the line and Julie sighed.

"Dad, don't wait too long. Who knows, something could happen and I want both of you to be happy."


	13. Chapter 13

_Sooo, I'm pretty sure not too many people are happy with me right about now. I take all responsibility for the mistakes and for the storyline too._

Chapter 13

"You did what?"

Les glared at his cousin as they rode back from the bar. Three men were on their radar and while denying anything to do with influencing some dude by the name of Dominic what-'is-name, they had cast furtive glances at each other. They had messed with Ranger, albeit his nephew, but they had messed with Ranger.

"WTH were you thinking about, Ranger? Dom put out a contract to kill Josh, and paid good money to have it done. That's murder, man."

Les glared and then slumped into his passenger seat. This was going FUBAR every which way.

He turned to his cousin.

"You need to meet with J.J. and I mean now."

Taking his silence as permission, Les pulled out his phone and called.

"J.J., its Les. We need to see you at your earliest convenience. It's really important."

Les nodded his head.

"We'll be there."

He hung up and looked at Ranger.

"We have an appointment as soon as we can get there. Alice is clearing his schedule."

Ranger tightened the grip on his steering wheel, but nodded his head and put on the signal light to turn off the road onto a side street. Taking turns here and there, they drove up to the building and walked in.

Alice looked at their faces and nodded that they should go in. She had been busy re-scheduling appointments and had cleared the rest of the day.

J.J. sat at his desk, but stopped working when they knocked and walked in.

He looked at their expressions, and muttered, "What, where, how bad and how many died?"

Normally there would have been something funny to respond with but this was not the time.

Quickly laying out the scenario, J.J. muttered. "Why the hell didn't you let the police handle this? Why didn't Tank advise you what to do and what not to? Jeez, Ranger, you've dug yourself in it this time!"

Ranger slumped into the chair.

"I tried to keep it in-house since it was me Josh was targeting. When I found out it was Dom behind him, well, he's family, J.J. and I tried to keep C out of it."

J.J. drummed his fingers on the table.

"Well, under duress, that tape won't count in a court of law and he could state he was fearing for his life and just spit out whatever he could."

Les sat back and watched. His cousin had been acting strangely since Josh had died. Yeah, the bomb might have re-set his thinking that this was over, but it should have been handled by the authorities.

Now was not the time to place blame, and Les spoke. "So, do we call the police and air our dirty laundry about what's been happening, or what, J.J.?"

There was silence in the room.

J.J. drummed his fingers on the table again. It appeared to be his new bad habit.

"I need to think about this. You said that you gave him a $500 Visa cash card. Can it be tracked to see which direction he was heading? Can it be traced back to you?"

Ranger nodded his head. "Yeah, I can track it since I know the number. No, I paid cash in a little grocery store out of town."

J.J. shook his head. The hole was getting deeper and deeper.

"I'll call you. Need I say that now would not be a good time to take a contract in the wind, my friend."

Ranger and Les stood up and shaking J.J.'s hand, walked out.

As they closed the door, they could hear J.J. muttering about family being the death of him.

~~~o0o~~~

Back in the office Ranger looked at the information on his computer.

Daniel Roberts. He knew that name.

He had been one of the men who had died of the poison in that village.

His body was not repatriated home and it looked like he had been friends with Josh. Who knew that this would have taken such a turn of events?

He mentally thanked Stephanie for her super sleuthing skills. Now, he could start to put some pieces together.

Unfortunately, there were still a few pieces missing.

It certainly wasn't Josh, or Dominic.

Someone who could lead men and 'make things happen'.

~~~o0o~~~

Tank drove across town and stopped at the house where Dominic lived. He could already tell that it was vacant.

His car was gone and there was a bunch of trash sitting on the curb waiting for the garbage man to come later today.

Tank shook his head.

He had heard the rumors and had figured that Dominic would want to remain silent if he ever succeeded. He might have access to money to pay people to do his dirty work but he did not have the brains or the experience to run such a large organization.

He climbed back into the truck and turned the key.

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby found Les hanging around the break room and walked over to him. He knew he was grinning like a damn fool and he didn't even care.

"Hey buddy. I got my condo!"

Les stopped eating and then immediately with a smile he stood up and slapped his best friend on the back.

"Cool, man. When's the party?"

Word spread through the room and the men came over and shook his hand, or patted him on the back. They were happy for him and offered their services helping him to move in when he got possession.

Ranger came down the hall checking out what all the chattering was for.

Stephanie came out of her office and came over giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Bobby left the room feeling confident that his friends were behind him on this change. He was looking forward to moving-in day. Mentally he circled August 1st on his calendar.

~~~o0o~~~

Hector came up to Ranger and nodded his head.

They headed to Rangers' office closing the door.

(Spoken in Spanish)

"I put a tracker on Tank and he headed straight to Dominic's house. He stopped his truck and walked around then climbed in and headed back to town.

He drove past your sister Celia's house but didn't stop."

He looked at Ranger. Rangers' face was blank and he waved his hand for more information.

"He headed to Lula's old place and sat in his vehicle in front of her apartment. Then he drove back here."

Ranger nodded his head and sat down at his desk.

"Keep an eye on him, please Hector."

Hector nodded his head, spun on his heel and opening the door, he slipped through.

Ranger shook his head.

~~~o0o~~~

The tiny details were coming together and fitting like a jigsaw puzzle. Josh knew about the poison. Josh knew I ALWAYS led the convoys. Josh had signed himself out the day that the vehicle that Stephanie had driven to the bond office was blown up. Josh had been there when the new construction was being carried out. Josh had access to every system in RangeMan.

Josh's name was circled in black.

Stephanie sat in the guest chair watching as I mulled over the file. She had been called a bulldog with her tenacious ability to find some tiny detail and grab onto it like a meaty bone.

I stood up and walked around to stand beside her. Leaning down, I scooped her up into my arms and sat down in the chair, holding her to my chest and breathing in the smell of her favorite shampoo. I could also faintly smell my Bulgari shower gel on her skin. She was wearing one of my tee-shirts, almost as if for courage.

The folder was clutched tightly in her grasp.

To all outward appearances, the case had been solved. The traitor was dead, courtesy of probably the person he had been taking direction from.

Ranger looked down.

"I continue to believe that this is not over."

He looked at Stephanie.

~~~o0o~~~

Rangers POV

I was putting two and two together.

Who was in charge when I went in the wind? Who backed me up, both emotionally and financially when we were young? Who helped me set up RangeMan with all its layers of leadership in case something happened to me?

Tank.

WTH!

I sat there mulling over my next move. Thinking back on my career I knew what I was going to do. I had led men into battle and out. I would settle it like the mercenary I was.

I stood up, again with Stephanie in my arms and set her on her feet. I pulled my phone out of my holster and pressed a button, waiting for a reply.

"Les, my office, now."

I looked at the wall with the photos of the four of us. We had been such a good team. Now, well, time would change our future.

Les knocked at the door waiting for permission to enter.

I barked, "Enter", and he stepped in.

I looked at him and he gulped in spite of himself. He had been around me for most of his life and knew seriousness when it mattered.

I gently tipped up her chin and gave Stephanie a soft kiss on the lips. She told me with her eyes that she loved me.

I looked at Les standing by the door looking serious.

I spoke. "Keep her safe. She is my everything."

He nodded his head and put his hand on the handle of the pistol by his hip. His face was blank and his posture was stiff. He knew that what I was ordering him to do was to guard the best thing to happen in my life with his life.

I strode to the door, and walked out without looking back.

I marched to Tank's door and walked in without knocking. Closing the door, I turned to him.

He was sitting at his desk, almost as if he was waiting for me. I looked at him and he looked at me.

I couldn't help it. "Why, Tank?"

He looked at me and shrugged.

"I thought I was happy being your second, but when you go away, I'm in charge. I began to like that feeling. I liked the power, the respect, acknowledging that I was doing a good job. You went on so many suicide missions that I was always prepared in case you didn't return."

He stopped then spoke again.

"Did you even realize that you've been on over 25 missions since we started this company? Yeah, some I went with you, but most you left me with whatever shit needed to be done to keep this place running."

He looked down at the piles of paper then up.

"Yeah, I was pretty sure it was that scumbag, Dominic. He had talked Josh into doing his shit inside of RangeMan. I believed that he had someone else providing look-out and I have my suspicions that it was Thomas. Josh got under my skin but the simple fact that if you were out of the picture then I would step in as head again and he probably thought he could move up."

Tank paused.

"I found that the longer I was here, the more I liked being in charge. If you were taken out, I would step in by being officially in charge, not just temporarily in charge until you returned."

He shook his head and muttered.

"Then, to top it off, Lula sent me a note. I thought we were finally onto that plane of togetherness forever shit, but she lost her nerve again. She's worried that she will go to jail and drag me down with her. To protect me, she doesn't want to see me again."

Tank looked so resigned to his fate that it stopped me in my anger. We had been through so much for so long and while it stung now, I knew the hurt would hit even harder later.

"I could have stopped it Ranger, but I didn't. I figured that if he succeeded, I won. If he failed, I'd still be here and if you take off again and get yourself killed, I would win. Either way, I would be the winner."

He shook his head and sighed.

He surprised me when he stood up. I understood the movement immediately. We would settle this like the men we were.

He headed for the door and I followed. He knew I would never shoot him in the back. That was a coward's way to fight.

We headed down the stairs never speaking and walked into the gym. There were a few men working out but with one look at the two of us they quickly vacated the room.

The lock on the door snicked into place.

~~~o0o~~~

Hector had taken his place at the monitoring station and was pushing buttons ensuing that what was happening down in the gym would not be seen by anyone. The tape was rolling and now storing down in his sanctuary.

Hal sat at the other station and was monitoring the network, casting furtive glances Hector's way now and then.

~~~o0o~~~

Inside the gym both Tank and Ranger stepped onto the mat. Each understood the rules without being told. Only one would walk out of there.

They circled, understanding each others' moves as if they were their own. Tank was stronger, but Ranger was faster. They continued to circle, then Ranger spoke.

"You could have stopped it and told me. We would have cornered him and finished the job together."

Tank shook his head.

"Yeah, and to thank me you would have offered me one of the satellite offices to run? Hell, Ranger, I was running the whole damn company half the time. I just wanted to do it all the time."

His big arm struck out trying to elbow Ranger in the ribs. Ranger blocked the hit with his arm and they exchanged a few blows back and forth before Ranger danced out of the way. He took up a protective stance as Tank spoke.

"I know you think you are bullet-proof, and the government keeps calling you, but someday, you'll be one step too slow or forget to duck. There's a time to quit but you like the action too much for that. That's why I got out of the game. I knew when it was time to hang 'em up."

He swung his leg around aiming for Ranger's kneecap. He shrugged as Ranger danced out of the way.

Ranger responded with a kick of his own, just missing Tanks' kidney area. They circled once again.

Tank growled. "You used up so much time, and resources looking after Stephanie and I began to see that she would never change and you would keep on giving her our hard-earned inventory. All the money I saved for the company and you were using it to keep her safe. I got sick of it."

Ranger spat out his next words as he connected with a short kick to the groin which missed the target landing on the side of Tank's large leg.

"She has more than made up for the damage to our equipment with her spidey-sense and ability to ferret out criminals. She's made us way more money than we have ever spent on her."

Tank shook his head in disagreement. "Yeah, well ask all the guys who've been shot or injured keeping her safe, man. We have a rule about carrying your weapon if you were employed at RangeMan. We spend good money on permits here, and we police our employees about safe handling at all times. Have you ever checked how many times she left it in her unlocked desk? I wanted to go to her place and break that damn cookie jar. She is a walking disaster waiting to happen. One of these days, Ranger, she's going to go too far and someone's going to get killed. It might even be you."

Ranger was shocked. He had no idea that Tank had felt so strongly about his Babe. He had always believed that they were best of friends. He remembered that Tank had spent literally hours working on her fitness programs and her office system training. He had never felt even once a shred of anger on the man he trusted to look after his Babe.

They both kicked high aiming for their opponents' head but both moved in time. Tank struck with his high leg kick again and Ranger blocked it with his hand but he had slightly overbalanced and Tank used his elbow to slam into the small of his back, making him wince.

Once again they circled. Talking was getting less and less important and the flurry of kicks and punched hitting their targets began to increase.

Ranger's brows knit together. As he connected with a kick to another rib, he grimaced at the punch to his neck, just missing his carotid artery. It had been meant to take him down and render him helpless. Tank was using some moves he had never seen before and while he was not afraid, he was quickly developing a tiny shred of understanding that the man in front of him was not the man he used to know. He had changed.

They continued to move over the mat, striking here and there, defending with elbows and knees. Both men were starting to show the effects of hits on targets. Blood was dripping on the mat. Still they fought on, two very strong men with their futures in the balance. Their faces were grim with eyes ever watchful.

They had never gone to this level of fighting before. Sure, anger had dictated a meeting on the mats now and then, but they had always pulled their punches where it counted and had made up afterwards with back slaps and grins of satisfaction at clearing the air.

Ranger could only dwell on what was happening in front of him.

He knew the signs of PTSD and Tank was displaying some of those. Sure, looking back he had expressed his emotions stronger than ever before. Tank had surprised him at his reluctance to do things now that had been fun in the past. Looking at all the signs, it wasn't that and couldn't be used as an excuse.

Tank hadn't stopped him when it came to Dominic. He could have used his logic and called in the police, and now Ranger was dealing with the unknown and needing J.J.'s services.

His worry right now was that Tank was trying to take over his company, probably over his dead body.

His resolve now firmly in his brain, he stepped up his attack, and a flurry of kicks and punches later, he had Tank beginning to reel. Bobby had mentioned to Ranger that on Tank's last two physicals he was gaining weight and in his medical evaluation it was starting to be a concern.

Tank surprised him and pulled out a knife from a sheath behind his back but the movement was tepid at best.

As Tank thrust with the knife in his hand, Ranger grabbed his arm, immobilizing the knife. He knocked the weapon away and it went flying, landing with a dull thud just off the mat.

The tide of the battle turned at that point and Ranger was making serious damage with each kick or punch. The man in front of him was beaten in body, and his eyes portrayed beaten in spirit also.

He looked at the man who had protected his back for so long. Tank was not his usual self. He was now fighting with only some of his usual resolve. It looked like he had lost the battle and was just hanging on. Hell, it looked like he wanted Ranger to finish the job. Suicide by mercenary.

Tank seemed to understand that he had lost not just this battle on the mats but the final battle. He lay on the mat trying to catch his breath. His nose was broken (again), his ribs felt at least cracked, if not broken, and his shoulder looked dislocated. Worst of all though, were his eyes. They had a defeated look, both for the immediate situation, but also for his future, and even more, for his life.

Tank shook his head, trying to clear the film in front of his eyes. As a mercenary he knew when the battle was lost. He hoped for a swift judgement. Mercy was not automatic and while it hurt to think that he had lost and lost big, his punishment would be swift, if not merciful. Ranger never kidded around with what needed to be done. That's why he had been such a good leader of men. Men knew where he stood and also knew that he would never leave them to face the merciless decisions of an enemy.

Ranger stepped back. His opponent lay in a heap on the mat, not moving.

It was decision time. Was he mercenary enough to complete the job?

Ranger stepped back even further, keeping an eye on his adversary.

He pulled out his phone and pressed one button.

"Bring your bag."

Bobby knocked once on the gym door and Ranger unlocked the door and opened it up. He waved in Brown with the bag slung over his shoulder and closed the door once again.

Bobby looked at Tank then back at Ranger, waiting for an order.

"Knock him out and keep him that way for 24 hours."

Bobby moved forward watching for some kind of retaliation but Tank lay still. He quickly swabbed a spot on his massive arm and pressed in the plunger, then stepped away looking at Ranger for further instructions. This was his call.

Ranger was already on the phone.

"Get the plane ready for a trip. Columbia. Yeah, I know. Use the special airstrip."

He hung up and made another call.

"Prepare for a package. Deep, and alert the men he gets one canteen and a knife."

Ranger hung up still looking at the crumpled mess of a man lying on the mat. He looked at the logo on the upper left breast of the T shirt embossed with the name RangeMan. Walking over to the knife, he reached down, picked it up and strode back to Tank. Leaning down and grabbing the piece of shirt with the name on it, he sliced it off leaving a ragged hole.

Without a backward glance he walked to the door and unlocked it, opening it to see who was outside.

Woody and Cal were guarding the door.

He looked at them, then jerked his head inside.

"The plane's waiting. Restrain and prepare him for transport. Brown will accompany."

Faces firmly blank, they moved into the room and between them both they heaved their cargo to his feet. Taking a massive arm each around their shoulders between them they dragged him out of the room to the elevator.

Bobby looked at Ranger gauging if he should be checking him for injuries, but he shook his head.

Bobby followed the procession sadly shaking his head.

Ranger slowly climbed the stairs to the fifth floor knowing that he would be passing through a gauntlet of men on the way to his office. Right now, all he could think about was his Babe, and how close he had come to never seeing her again. He knew, deep in his heart that Tank would have killed him if the roles were reversed and he was the one lying on the mat.

He grimaced as his hand turned the knob on the door to the fifth floor. He was hurting, yeah, but he would heal. His Babe would look after him until Bobby returned.

He walked to his office and opened the door, pleased that Les was standing in front of Stephanie with his gun out. He motioned him outside with a nod of his head, and taking Stephanie's hand, he walked with her to the elevator which was already open. He pressed his fob sending it to seven and walked to the apartment door, pressing the fob once again.

He escorted her in, the door closed and the lock turned.

They would talk, and they would digest what had just happened. He would get his Babe to check him over for obvious injuries, but mostly he wanted, no, needed to just hold her, knowing how close it had come to a much different conclusion.

~~~o0o~~~

The men stood around the control room speaking in whispers.

Les barked. "Do your jobs and keep RangeMan running."

()()()

 _AN – I just can't read this over and over anymore looking for errors. I'm sad too._

 _Myrna_


	14. Chapter 14

_There are only two chapters left and it seemed cruel to make you wait, so today and tomorrow and this tale will be complete. Thanks for reading and reviewing._

Chapter 14

Ranger sat at his desk in his office on five with the door closed. His desk top was covered in files needing his attention, but for a brief moment in time they had been pushed aside. He was leaning back, his fingers steepled together.

Laying in front of him were small rectangular boxes. Boxes filled with medals, clasps, ribbons, and memories. It had been so long since he had looked at them. Usually they lay in neat piles way in the back of his office safe but today he had felt the need to take them out.

Each box held memories, some good, some bad, mostly sad and some containing memories so bad he never ever wanted to relive them either in real life or in a dream.

Leaning forward he opened one of the boxes. There, laying on the soft material was a Purple Heart. He remembered the incident well.

It was his first mission. They were pinned down by enemy fire and as a loader for the machine gunner, he was tasked with keeping the ammunition close at hand. He had been warned a number of times that one of those bullets buzzing by might have his name on it if he got careless, but well, he was 18. He took a moment to peek over the dirt embankment. It was nighttime and he foolishly thought that it might be safe to take a peek.

He fell back holding his hand to his face. A bullet had grazed him and his face was burning. He heard the call for the medic and lay there as the man worked on him. His face hurt and his pride was forever bruised. He was not invincible. He had just shed blood for his country.

Tank had come to the aid station. Instead of mollycoddling him and telling him he was lucky, he had bereted him at his immature stupidity.

"What part of keep your damn head down didn't you understand, asshat? I almost had to break in a new partner." Tank was usually a man of few words.

Ranger closed the box. That had been just the first of a number of Purple Hearts. He thought that while they were something that he had never wanted to receive, most of them had involved saving a fellow comrade, or rescuing an innocent in a foreign land.

He opened another box.

Bronze Star. He remembered this one very well. Tank and he had been inside a chopper that was shot down over enemy territory. Everyone on board was either wounded or dead. Disregarding their own injuries he and Tank worked feverishly to keep as many of their fellow soldiers alive until help arrived. Looking back, between providing basic first aid to save their comrades and keeping away the enemy from over-running their position, it had not been noticed how badly they too had been injured. The medics who had arrived on scene were able to stabilize all they could and transport everyone to an evac hospital. Ranger and Tank were also suffering but they had remained silent until they had fallen unconscious on the medical ride back to base from loss of blood.

Closing the lid carefully, he looked at another box.

This one was a little more unusual. He had been 'in the wind' as his Babe called it. He had been tracking down a major drug dealer in the country and having cornered him, he had called in the request to terminate. Unfortunately the government needed a positive spin and had wanted him taken alive, believing that parading him around would show the world that they were helping to control the drug problem in their country. In Rangers' mind, a bullet would have solved the problem, but well, he was under orders. Unfortunately more attention led to a daring escape and Hernandez disappeared once again. Ranger had been tasked to go back in and this time, he had 'finished the job'. The presentation of this medal had been done in secret with nobody except the countrys' president and aide in the room.

Ranger looked at the other boxes sitting neatly on his desk.

His President had pinned this one on. Generals and Admirals had presented him with this or that one.

The reasons were all the same. He had gone in, done the job and gotten out, mostly without serious physical injury. Unfortunately, memory is long-lasting and a number of these 'jobs' Ranger would remember to his grave.

Ranger gathered up the boxes and strode to his safe. Spinning the dial he placed them carefully on the shelf. Closing and spinning the lock on the door, he straightened. He mentally saluted his friends who would not ever be coming home for Christmas or any other holiday and he silently acknowledged their sacrifice.

He had left Tank to look after his company. He had trusted him to keep it running and to keep his Babe safe. Where had he gone wrong?

He looked at the wall with various pictures on it. A lot of them had the four of them, the Four Musketeers. Les was his usual goofy self, and Bobby was standing there with his gentle smile. Tank had his arms crossed over his massive chest. He was glaring at the camera willing it to get the cameraman to take the damn picture and get lost. Ranger looked at his own face in the picture. He had looked serious and very aware of his surroundings.

There was a soft knock on the door and Les and Bobby walked in. They closed the door behind them and headed for the couch, their normal seating preferences.

Each took a quick look at the big comfy armchair that Tank had always gravitated to.

Bobby looked tired. He's just returned and wanted to brief Ranger.

"I repaired what injuries I could and he should make a complete recovery. At the same time, I watched as he just lay there."

Bobby shook his head. Tank had been like a father-figure to him for so many years. His own parents had died in a car accident and it was Tank who had taken him under his wing. Les took on the role as a brother and Ranger, well, Ranger was their leader and disciplinarian when he needed it.

"I left a card in his pocket for that doctor we know down there. I suspect that there's something wrong. If I had to guess, it was too much and something snapped."

What he didn't volunteer was that he had contacted the doctor and had slipped him some money, just in case. Tank would have no money if he did contact him, and he did need some help.

Ranger nodded. He had gone over and over what had transpired on the mat. Tank had loved his Babe at some time in the past. He was mulling over some of the things Tank had said. There would be changes, and they would include his Babe. He had been too lax with her disregard for their rules. He needed to protect his men too.

They sat marshalling their thoughts.

All Trenton RangeMan employees were ordered to a meeting in two hours and contract employees had been brought in.

~~~o0o~~~

The conference room was silent as a tomb as Ranger walked in. He could feel every eye watching his every move. They had all noticed that the chair normally reserved for Tank was empty. They had seen the office used by Tank emptied to the bare walls.

The men watched as Stephanie slid silently in the door after Ranger had marched to the front of the room.

She looked, well, sad. Her face had that worried and strained expression. This too had been hard on her.

Ranger looked around the room.

"Men, I've come to personally apologize to you for doubting your loyalty to me and to RangeMan. I had suspected that I was being targeted but the possibility that it was an inside influence made me cautious in my allegations.

He looked around. A pin drop would have sounded loud as everyone hung on Rangers' every word.

"Josh Danielson was our traitor. A man who had a hatred so dark that he was unable to get past the death of his friend from a mission a number of years ago."

He paused and looked around the room.

"At the same time, we had a secondary issue here. Tank felt that he was ready to take over RangeMan. He knew what was happening and didn't alert anyone to the possibility of a threat inside our building. He admitted that he had planned every time I left that he would step in permanently if something happened to me. While that is good planning to acknowledge such a possibility in wartime, this is my company, and my men. He was guilty therefore by omission."

He paused and motioned for Stephanie to come to his side. She walked to him and tucked her body into the side of him with her arm wrapped tightly around his waist.

"As of this moment, the Core Team consists of myself, Les and Bobby. I am planning on adding more personnel in the near future. I fully acknowledge that Tank was processing a phenomenal amount of work on my behalf as second in command, and I for one will never forget his contribution."

He paused and looked at the men in the room, making eye contact with every member in the room.

"I just in all honesty could not terminate him in the most mercenary form, but if he ever, and I mean EVER, arrives back in any city where I am or in close proximity to any member of the RangeMan family, I will finish the job. He did save my life a number of times and for that I am grateful, but let me assure you, if he ever steps one foot near anybody I know or love and I will feel no remorse in finishing the job."

He looked down at Stephanie as he continued.

"I just received the papers confirming my retirement from working special projects. It's time. So men, I won't be 'going in the wind' as my Babe calls it anymore. You get me full-time."

Stephanie looked up at her man and tears rolled down her cheeks. She reached up, and with both hands, pulled his face down slightly and gave him a kiss on the lips. Taking her hands off his face, she once again tucked herself by his side and put her arm around his waist.

He looked around the room and spoke again.

"Just before I came down to talk to you I asked for my Babe's hand in marriage. As you well know, we have both had commitment issues with this final act of love. She has graciously consented to marry me and make me the happiest man in the world right now."

The room erupted in cheers and the men jumped out of their seats to rush to the two standing at the front. There were handshakes and back slaps and Stephanie was hugged and kissed (on the cheek).

Les, who obviously had no wish to live a very long life, lifted Stephanie up into the air, spinning around and gave her a huge hug.

"Welcome to the family, Beautiful. I think when the time comes, you should name your first-born Les."

Putting her back on solid ground, he barely dodged a fist to the jaw.

After the congratulations were over the men drifted back to their work stations and to their vehicles, all the while alternately grinning at the good news or grimacing at the bad news.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie pulled Ranger to his office and closed the door behind her. She walked him to his office chair and pushed him into it then slid onto his lap. Her hands caressed his strong jaw, moving up to stroke his cheeks then slid her hands into his hair, pushing the leather strap out, dropping it to the floor behind him.

She nervously played with the gorgeous engagement ring that he had given her less than an hour ago.

She looked in his eyes then spoke. "I want to show you something."

She pulled a long, thin box out of her pants pocket.

Ranger's eyebrow lifted and he looked at her as she held it out.

"Remember last week when you couldn't sleep and we participated in what you later called a relaxing diversion? Well, while you were preparing for your meeting with your men, I felt the need to do some research on my own."

Ranger looked at her then opened the box. Inside was a slender tube. He looked at it, then slowly reached over and turned on the lamp on his desk and placed it under the light.

His eyes widened and he looked at Stephanie. There was one word in the little window on the tube. POSITIVE.

His eyes softened and he hugged her to his chest.

She pushed him back into the chair before she stammered.

"I… I didn't know when you proposed. This might change your view of us together. I know you didn't want any more kids, but…"

She was looking down and twirling the ring around her finger as if to slip it off, when Ranger put his hand over hers, stilling her efforts.

"Babe, I always said I didn't NEED more kids not WANT more kids, and you stated so many times that you didn't WANT to be a mom. It is obviously your decision, but I want both you and the peanut as a package deal."

They sat quietly for a few minutes, revelling in the glow of their new relationship before Ranger spoke.

"Babe, I think I should tell you now before we go much farther, but did I ever tell you that there is a strong history of twins on our side of the family?"

Stephanie slumped in his arms in a dead faint.

Ranger held her with her head against his chest. He looked down at her, kissed the top of her head and smiled.

"Babe, you never disappoint!"

~~~o0o~~~

Tank woke up under a tree. By his side was a canteen and a knife in a scabbard. Wrapped around the handle of the knife was a single sheet of paper. He shook his head trying to clear out the cobwebs and leaned over to take the band off the paper and focus on the words.

 _Do not ever come back. I will be merciful only this one time._

With one kick of his gigantic boot, he broke open the end of the crate.

 **Last chapter tomorrow.**

 **Myrna**


	15. Chapter 15

_Thank you for the many reads and reviews. Thanks again to Janet Evanovich who allows us to take her characters and make them jump through our hoops in a quest for a story._

Chapter 15

Stephanie and Ranger had married in a quiet ceremony with just the RangeMen from Trenton in attendance. Julie had flown in and was standing beside Stephanie as her attendant.

Les was standing by Ranger and while he was glad to have his cousin supporting him during this most important function, both were thinking of Tank, who under normal circumstances should have been there.

They had heard tidbits that he had indeed stayed away. Word had also filtered down that Lula had mysteriously disappeared one night from Memphis and there was an APB out for her return. Detective Janice Mann was not giving up. She wanted that file closed, and Lula was her only suspect.

Nobody in their right mind would argue that if Tank wanted to disappear and to take Lula with him, well, he was a man of many talents. Tank had been a master at evading capture and all who knew the situation hoped it would stay that way. There were rumors that he had taken the odd job as a security specialist but when word had leaked out usually weeks or months later, they had disappeared again.

Ranger had kept an eye on one special bank account in his vast repertoire of money stashed in countries around the world. He noticed that one day it was drained and the account closed. Ranger nodded his head in agreement. It was a 'special' account that they had set up when he and Tank had been starting out in the Army. In a drunken stupor they had made one of those mushy promises that if the need arose, it could be used, no questions asked. There had been automatic deposits over the years and the sum was quite substantial. Ranger had left that one account with Tanks' name on it and it appeared that for whatever reason it was being utilized.

He wished his former colleague the best for whatever life he was facing. No communication had or ever would be tolerated but that was a final gift to a man who had stood by him for so many years.

He had an idea where he might be hiding out. They had talked about their favorite places to retire to and Tank had been enamored by one area. Living was cheap and the pace was slow. Maybe if he and Lula were there, they could heal from whatever had set him off and made him change so dramatically.

Bobby took a few days off here and there and while Ranger never asked him where he was going, he would come back in a more relaxed frame of mind. He could have tracked his movements, but, really, why?

~~~o0o~~~

J.J. had looked very carefully at the whole mess and had managed to keep Ranger from any fallout with respect to the vehicle explosion. The taped conversation had been made under duress and would never have stood up in any court of law. The three men had left town and their whereabouts hadn't be tracked. Jeff Bowman didn't seem to know the contacts real name and the fact that the money had headed to an account off shore meant another dead end. Dominic had found a job in a small town and wasn't ready to rock any boats there with respect to his past.

It was a tragedy for the family of Josh Danielson to lose a son and Ranger had stepped in with a bereavement package that was certainly impressive. Josh had served RangeMan in a capable manner before what was never to be talked about had happened.

J.J. received enough from RangeMan for his efforts that he could have bought a new boat. Instead, he donated the money to one of the many veterans funds helping homeless vets in their time of need.

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby strode down the hallway to his condo. He was chuckling to himself at his stroke of good fortune. He was looking at the picture on his phone.

It was Ranger and Stephanie holding a tiny baby. Stephanie had not been impressed with Rangers' attempt at levity that day so long ago, so when it came time for the first ultrasound, and there was only one fetus in Stephanies' womb, they all heaved a sigh of relief.

Bobby could already see that they would make wonderful parents. Their faces looking down at their precious bundle of joy showed love and excitement even in a camera photo.

Ranger and Stephanie had talked about a home birth due to Stephanies' real aversion to hospitals, but they hadn't wanted to put any pressure on Bobby. As it turned out, there was a transformer failure just outside the RangeMan building and the emergency generator had kicked in. All critical systems had continued to run but one system deemed not critical had been the elevator.

Stephanie had already gone into early labour and the little one had been born in the bedroom on seven.

Adelita Maryann Manoso was born and she had a temper from the minute she was born. It would take an entire company of very strong men to keep an eye on this little miss and they were all looking forward to the upcoming mission.

Ella had been an excellent assistant and it was she who had swaddled the baby in a warm blanket before handing her to her mother. Bobby had handled this most unusual medical procedure in a company full of men like the expert he was.

The ambulance attendants were called when the power returned. They were tasked with transporting a brand new family unit to the hospital for evaluation. They had been escorted both in front and behind the ambulance by vehicles driven by large and scary men who appeared to have permanent smiles on their faces. RangeMan had grown by one very important family member.

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby almost ran into a woman who walked out of the condo next to his. Her arms were full of flattened boxes and she peeked around them just in time to avoid running into him.

He put away his phone and spoke.

"If you need a hand, I can help you take these down to the recycling bin. I live next door. My name's Bobby Brown."

The woman looked at him and blushed. Her reddish hair and multitude of freckles made the blush even more noticeable. As she spoke, he recognized a strong accent that sounded Celtic.

"I am so sorry. I wanted to get these boxes out of the way and took too many at once."

She looked like she wanted to adjust the sliding boxes but instead he gently plucked all of them out of her hands.

"My names Isabel and I just moved in today. Thank you for your help."

They headed to the elevator and Bobby nodded for her to press the button for the basement where the recycling bin was located.

Walking back to the elevator after unloading the flattened boxes, they chatted.

Isabel had a year lease on the condo. She was working for an IT company and had just transferred to Trenton to update the satellite office systems. She was single and was missing her family.

Bobby turned to her.

"I have a bottle of red wine in my condo. I just delivered a baby and would like to celebrate the happy occasion."

He looked at her.

"Would you join me? We could celebrate you moving in and me helping to bring a new life into the world."

Isabel smiled and nodded.

"That would be very nice, thank you."

()()()

 **I would like to thank Megan for taking the time out of a very busy schedule at work to look at this. Thank you Maggie M for taking a quick peek to see if the storyline was even viable.**

 **I would be remiss in not thanking you, the readers for your thoughts and reviews. I read them all and will respond.**

 **Myrna**


End file.
